Bangalore: A 40-member fact-finding team drawn from various parts of the country, which visited Mangalore and nearby areas, has held the Sangh Parivar and the local police responsible for the recent communal riots there.

Speaking to The Hindu on Friday on behalf of the team, G.K. Ramaswamy of the People's Democratic Forum said the team visited trouble-hit areas such as Ullal, B.C. Road, Thokkattu, Farangipet, Gudinabali and Suratkal, local hospitals, police stations, various local organisations and spoke to victims on October 18 and 19.

Though the immediate cause of the riots may have be an incident at Bajpe, the disturbances can be traced to a simmering communal situation in the region for over a decade, which has resulted in "severe polarisation of the communities," according to the findings of the team.

The team feels that the Sangh Parivar forces have gained strength after B. Nagaraja Shetty of the Bharatiya Janata Party took over as the district-in-charge Minister. It alleges that some "communal-minded" police officers, who were earlier transferred, were reinstated after Mr. Shetty took charge. They played "a significant role" in worsening the communal situation, according to the team.

Using the bandh as the pretext, Sangh Parivar forces targeted Muslims. Following this, the police ransacked the houses of Muslims and indiscriminately beat up and arrested people, especially in Ullal and Gudinabali, resulting in a "unilateral onslaught on the minority community," according to the team. This has resulted in Muslims losing faith in the police force and the administration in general, observes the team.

Judicial probe sought

The team has demanded a judicial investigation, headed by a sitting judge, into the incidents within a specified timeframe. The other demands of the team include filing First Information Reports against erring police officials, revamping the force to purge it of "communal elements" and dropping Mr. Shetty from the Ministry. The long-term objective of the State should be to create peace and harmony in the district, which is now "simmering with deep-rooted prejudices." Peace-loving people on both sides should come forward to restore mutual trust in order "not to create another Gujarat-like situation," it adds.

Members of the fact-finding team include Badhukwala of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Baroda; C. Subbanna of the Human Rights Forum, Andhra Pradesh; Sudhakar and Kranti Chaitanya of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee; Damayanti and Hari Babu of the Committee to Protect Civil Liberties, Tamil Nadu; T.S. Vivekananda and A. Selva of the PUCL-Karnataka; members of Pedestrian Pictures, Bangalore; Aravind Narain of the Alternative Law Forum; and independent intellectuals such as Yogindar Sikand, G. Rajashekar and Pattabhirama Somayaji.

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