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Journalism of Courage
GANDHINAGAR, Jan 4: A day after senior Sangh Parivar leaders in south Gujarat asserted that the Hindu Jagaran Manch was a part of the Sangh, Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya claimed today that VHP and Bajrang Dal activists had not been directly involved in the recent violent attacks on Christians in the Dangs, incidents which he said were a "trivial communal happening".
However, he admitted that "some of them might have mingled in the rally organised by the HJM in Ahwa on December 25".
Incidentally, the state government had been saying all along that the incidents in the Dangs were being "blown out of proportion".
Seeking to support this stand, the minister said not a single person had lost his life in the violence, nor had anyone been was reported missing, and that the damages to the private properties were estimated at “only” Rs 4 lakhs.
In a late-night development, meanwhile, Manoj Shashidhar was appointed DSP, Dangs.
ENS adds from Surat: No untoward incident was reported from any part of Dangs district during the past 24 hours. On Sunday, there had been reports of prayer meetings being disrupted.
The police, who described the situation as peaceful, have arrested 16 people in different cases of violence in the district; they had all been named in cases reported before December 31.
Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, Janata Dal president Sharad Yadav, and former union minister and MP Ram Vilas Yadav are visiting the trouble-torn district on January 5. The team is also expected to visit the trouble-torn areas Limbayat in Surat, and Amod.
