Mangalore : A large number of Catholics from various churches under the Mangalore Catholic Diocese and other churches participated in the mammoth silent protest rally at Nehru Maidan on February 20, Sunday.
The protest rally was held to oppose the report of Justice Somshekar Commission and demanding the CBI probe on the issue.
The participants of the rally, as a symbol of protest tied black ribbons across the mouth, carried placard and black flags to protest against the report submitted to the government recently by Justice Somshekara.
The silent protest rally commenced from Jyothi circle at 3 pm and culminated at Nehru Maidan grounds.  The leaders representing Christianity like Mariamma Thomas, Brother Walter J Maben and Bishop of Mangalore Rt Rev Dr Aloysius Paul D Souza addressed the massive gathering and demanded to hand over the case to the CBI. They also urged the government to withdraw of cases filed against Christians.
Addressing the protestors, Mariamma Thomas thanked Ronald Colaco and the Bishops for their efforts in convincing the Home Minister of Karnataka R Ashok for assuring to withdraw the cases filed against the catholic youth as soon as possible.
In his presidential address Bishop Dr Aloysius Paul D Souza said that the Somshekara Commission report has hurt the sentiments of Christians for keeping the minority community to the corner.
Further, he also demanded the investigation on the church attack and the events that followed should be handed over to the CBI in order to provide justice to the Christians.
He also demanded the State Government to withdraw all the registered cases filed against the Christians in the connection with the attacks