Protect all places of worship: Cong

panaji: the congress party has demanded that the state government should make a thorough appraisal of the security of all religious places belonging to all communities and provide adequate protection to churches, temples and mosques all over the state. the executive committee of the party which met here today has expressed concern over setting fire to the masjid and burning of copies of qur'an at socorro, porvorim, by unidentified "criminals" on the night intervening december 16-17, on the eve of idd-ul-fitr.addressing a press conference after the meeting, the president of the goa pradesh congress committee (gpcc), ms nirmala sawant, said that her party has sought the intervention of the governor, mr mohammad fazal, and requested him to instruct the government to initiate action to book the culprits who were involved in burning of a mosque at socorro, porvorim, immediately. ms sawant also said that the party took exception to the speech of the vishwa hindu parishad (vhp) leader, dr pravinbhai togadia, at azad maidan last week, in which he said that if the government failed to resolve ayodhya issue by march 12, 2002, the vhp would have to give call for construction of 30,000 temples throughout country by demolishing mosques. the gpcc president alleged that the state government, led by bharatiya janata party (bjp), had directed police to take a soft stand on the offending speech made by dr togadia. she further said that police should have taken suo moto action against dr togadia for making speech hurting the feelings of other communities and inciting communal disturbance. the congress party has demanded that government should direct police authorities to examine the text of the speech made by dr togadia, as part of investigation into the case relating to burning of the mosque, and book cases against all those who have aided and abetted the offence, she said. expressing concern over the deteriorating law and order condition in the state, with reports of rising robberies and dacoities, she said her party would like to warn the government over the intention of some people to hold rave parties at various places in the state for a week beginning on the full moon night. the state congress party chief further said that the committee also adopted a resolution condemning the attack by the terrorists on parliament, the edifice of the indian democracy on december 13. the party executive committee also paid homage to the security personnel who laid down their life fighting the terrorists. the party decided to hold a workers meeting in salcette on december 28 as part of the party's foundation day celebrations. it also decided to launch an intensive drive to enroll party members, she said adding that a report submitted by the revenue cell chief of the party, mr savio de souza, with regards to communidades in the country would be discussed in the next meeting of the party. meanwhile, five days after miscreants burnt a prayer hall, in socorro village, police are still searching for concrete clues which will point to the identity of the culprits. reliable sources stated that the police were investigating whether the incident was related to the assault on union minister, mr sripad naik, or whether it was a consequence of local rivalry. while some people had been detained for questioning in the matter, there had been no arrests so far. sources also stated that a police team had left for kumta in karnataka to investigate the antecedents of one of the assailants of mr naik.