Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru 

Mangaluru, Sep 24: City police commissioner Dr P S Harsha said that the message warning spread through social media which claims that there would riots in city, is fake and people should not believe it. 

“Please pray for peace during the next ten days in Mangaluru as there will be a huge riot set up by VHP and RSS on September 29 in the name of ‘fight against conversion by Christian missionaries.’ Many of the media channels are threatened to convey wrong messages,” reads a message being sent on WhatsApp. It is also circulated in social media. 

Dr Harsha assured that this message is clearly a fake one and there is absolutely no need to panic.

Dr P S Harsha 

“This is all rumour mongering. There is nothing to worry about. Some people are unnecessarily spreading panic,” he told a news network. 

The message was being forwarded on WhatsApp following a public meeting held earlier in the week in Udupi where members from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal spoke about recent instances of alleged forced religious conversions. At the meeting held on Tuesday, VHP divisional secretary Sharan Pumpwell said that two people from the city had been forcibly converting others and demanded their arrest. 

“We have heard that the forceful conversion of people is happening quite often in some prayer centres of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. This is a systematic conspiracy and a probe should be held. All religious centres need to be checked. People should support in order to prevent such kind of religious conversion,” Sharan reportedly said. 

Sharan also stated that his organisation would approach the Centre and ask for an anti-conversion bill to be implemented and enforced. This has been twisted into a fake warning and is being forwarded in groups.