Mumbai: Former judge in the Bombay and Karnataka high courts, Justice Michael Saldanha has described Karnataka with having the worst communal-persecution record and a state that encourages terror on minorities.

Addressing a press meet organised jointly by All India Secular Forum and Catholic-Christian Secular Forum (CSF) the retired judge said that while across the country there has been a marked decrease in communal-related violence between 65 per cent to 75 per cent, “In Karnataka the violence targeting minorities jumped up by 90 per cent.”

He warned that the current scenario “is so alarming that even a minor flash point in near future may turn the state into a communal inferno... if steps to rein in parochial forces are not taken in time.”