Police begin collecting data on prayer halls in Attappadi.

http://newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/Police-begin-collecting-data-on-prayer-halls-in-Attappadi/2013/10/30/article1863440.ece

The police have started collecting data on Christian missionary institutions functioning in the Attappadi tribal belt. A team of officials led by Agali DySP R Salim met representatives of various sects functioning within the Agali police station limits at his office on Tuesday.

 Express had earlier reported on the conversion drive conducted by various Christian denominations in the region following the recent incidents of malnutrition deaths.

The Intelligence Wing of the State Police had also submitted a report to the Home Department warning on the possibility of communal tension in the area. Salim said the police are in the process of collecting data about institutions run by the missionaries, including prayer halls, schools, hospitals, de-addiction and meditation centres. ‘’We have asked them not to engage in any type of conversion activities,” he said.
 It is learnt that most of the representatives who attended the meeting were Pentecostal pastors who were specifically accused in the Intelligence report as luring tribal population to their faith. The police are learnt to have planned a similar meetings at the Sholayur police station limits this week. The officials termed the data collection a cumbersome task as many of the prayer halls were functioning in the houses of pastors or converted tribals. “As churches need to register with the local panchayat, some sects run prayer halls in the residences of pastors or converted tribals to bypass the rule,” they said.  Attappadi block panchayat president Usha Raju said the initiative, though belated, is a welcome move. “The pastors have succeeded in converting a significant population in hamlets like Pothupadi, Vattilakki and Kattekad,” she said.

Maruthi, secretary of Thaikula Sangham, an organisation of tribal women in Attappadi, alleged that many of Sangham’s development project proposals were rejected by the government. But missionary organisations easily bag them which gives them genuineness among the tribal population,” she said.