Saturday, November 26 2005 10:05 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Reviving the Sena's 'Marathi manoos' spirit, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has warned that Kannadigas in Maharashtra will be thrashed if the Marathi population in the bordering areas of Karnataka was harmed.

"Even if one Marathi man is attacked in the border areas, then, some important Kannadigas in Maharashtra will be thrashed similarly," the Sena supremo said in a statement issued yesterday (Nov 25, 2005) in wake of the dissolution of the Belgaum civic body that had resolved to merge with Maharashtra and subsequent attack on the Belgaum mayor.

"For the time being, no minister from Karnataka will be allowed to move freely in Maharashtra," Thackeray has warned.

The Sena chief has also warned the Kannadigas to stop attacks on Marathi people in the border areas of Karnataka. "I want to warn them that if such attacks continue, then the Shiv Sena will also teach them a lesson," Thackeray has further said.

Flaying the DF Government in Maharashtra, Thackeray said that the Chief Minister did not react even though he was rapped by a Karnataka minister. "What kind of Government is this? It has just one-point programme of succumbing to the party leadership."

The Sena chief has asked the Centre to stop (Karnataka from) activities like dismissal of Belgaum civic bodies till the Supreme Court decision on the border dispute between the two states was delivered.