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| 2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka | |||
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 Districts affected by the attacks. Udupi district Chikkamagaluru district | |||
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The 2008 attacks on Christians in southern Karnataka refer to the wave of attacks directed against Christian churches and prayer halls in the Indian city of Mangalore and the surrounding area of southern Karnataka in September and October 2008 by such Hindu nationalist organisations as Bajrang Dal and Sri Ram Sena. The attacks were widely perceived by Christians in southern Karnataka to be revenge from right-wing Hindu nationalist organisations, because Mangalorean Christians had been outspoken about 2008 anti-Christian attacks in Orissa; also because the New Life Fellowship Trust (NLFT), a non-denominational Christian Church, was alleged by Bajrang Dal to be responsible for forcible conversions of Hindus to Christianity.[citation needed]
Several incidents against Christians were reported from 17 August onwards, and on 29 August some 45,000 institutions across India participated in a "prayer for peace and communal harmony" in response to the ongoing anti-Christian violence in Orissa. St Aloysius College and some other 2000 Christian schools in Karnataka went on strike for varying periods between 29 August and the 5 September prior to the attacks, protesting against the attacks in Orissa, in defiance of the orders of the government who stated that it was to be a regular work day. This led to the BJP administration of Karnataka's denouncement of Christian institutions in the state, for disobeying orders & led to a Bajrang Dal demonstration outside St Aloysius College, two weeks prior to the main attacks. The attacks began on 14 September, when a group of youths from the Bajrang Dal went inside the chapel of Adoration Monastery of the Sisters of St Clare near the Milagres Church in Hampankatta and desecrated it. Some 20 churches, temples, and halls belonging to Catholic, Protestant & Evangelical Christians; and Jehovah's Witnesses were attacked and schools and colleges were damaged in towns and villages of the Mangalore taluk; and other parts of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chikkamagaluru districts. A few Christian institutions were later attacked in Bangalore district and Kasaragod district. Out of frustration and anger, the Christian community responded to the attacks within hours and began protesting.
The Catholics of Karkala deanery staged a ,protest on 15 September and organised a 3 kilometre silent protest march. The protestors blocked arterial city roads in their masses, especially in places such as Hampankatta, Kulshekar, Bejai, Derebail and Thokottu and rang bells in almost all the churches of Mangalore, calling parishioners to their churches. The protests led to strong police suppression with lathi charges and tear gas, making around 150 arrests and injuring 30 to 40 people. Violence broke out at the Adoration monastery as police began caning the protestors with sticks and bursting teargas shells, in return the protesters pelted stones at police, and the police pelted the stones back at them. In another place the police were pelted with stones for their failure to arrest the perpetrators of the attacks. Between 15 September and 10 October, a new wave of anti-minority attacks began against Christian communities in Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, New Delhi, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, as well as Muslim communities in Gujarat and Maharashtra.
In February 2011, retired Justice MF Saldanha of the Bombay High Court, was outspoken and published a report in which he described the attacks as "state-sponsored terrorism", and that the attacks were part of "communal forces" at work attacking Christian institutions on the coastal belt of India. The report and continued denial by the state government of being implicated in the attacks led to more than 100,000 Christians representing some 45 Christian denominations and secular organisations leading a silent march in Mangalore on 21 February. Following the publications of the reports and subsequent protests, the Government of Karnataka announced that it would drop 338 cases against Christians who had protested in the attack, and, in December 2011, a further 23 cases against Christians were dropped.
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