Reports on attack quot;one-sidedquot; says Thakre

He told newsmen here that government could not prevent some stray incidents. The Gujarat Government had reacted immediately and made several arrests. 8220;Reaction is more important.8221;

Categorically saying that violence against anybody is 8220;bad8221; and it has to be avoided, he said 8220;persuasion and meeting together is the only way.8221;

Culprits must be punished, he added, and rejected a charge that there was a division between the government and the party on the attacks.

Meanwhile, damage caused in the attacks in the tribal-dominated Dangs district in Gujarat since December 25 has been estimated at Rs 3.90 lakh.

Dangs district collectorate sources told newsmenover phone that four survey teams constituted to assess the damage are expected to submit their final reports within two days.

The sources said there was only one church in the whole of Dangs district registered with the Revenue Department and it was located at Ahwa just opposite the district collectorate office.

This church was not damaged in the violence, the sources said adding that other places of Christian worship which were vandalised by fundamentalists happened to be only make-shift prayer halls, most of them made with bamboo sticks and haystacks.

Most of the damage in the violence was borne by a school and an institution run by a Christian social organisation, the sources said.

After the survey work is over, the district authorities would initiate steps to distribute compensation on the guidelines earmarked by the State Government, they said.

8220;We are not aware about the guidelines on distribution of compensation because of the fact that things of this nature had never occurred in thedistrict,8221; they said.

So far, 139 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence. While 96 of them were Hindus, the remaining 43 were tribal Christians, the added.

Of the total 311 villages in Dangs district, incidents of violence were reported from only 25 villages and the number of First Information Reports lodged in this regard were 30 of which only 22 were found to be substantive. Meanwhile, police said there were no reports of any untoward incident in Dangs district during the past 24 hours.