New Delhi  - Police have arrested a Hindu right-wing activist in the southern Indian state of Karnataka in connection with attacks on Christian places of worship, news reports said Saturday.

Mahendra Kumar, convenor of the Karnataka Bajrang Dal, an offshoot of the Hindu right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP - World Hindu Council) was detained in Mangalore district on Friday on charges of criminal conspiracy and promoting enmity between different religious groups, PTI news agency reported.

The Bajrang Dal had claimed responsibility for the attacks on at least 14 churches and prayer halls since September 14 in Mangalore, Udupi and Chikamagulur districts claiming they were in protest against "forced conversions" by local Christian groups.

Kumar's arrest came a day after the federal Home Ministry issued a strong advisory, the second in 24 hours, saying the Karnataka's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was not taking adequate steps to bring the situation under control and to bring the guilty to book.

The advisory warned that these developments amounting to "breach of the Constitution and the law of the country."

The BJP, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal are all part of a right-wing Hindu movement in India of which the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is the ideological fountainhead.

The state government had earlier said the Bajrang Dal was not involved in the attack on Christian prayer halls. But members of the National Minorities Commission, which on Wednesday visited the areas where the attacks took place, said they had seen Kumar claiming in interviews to television channels that the Bajrang Dal had staged the attacks, PTI news agency reported.

The Karnataka government also on Friday appointed a commission headed by a former high court judge to probe the attacks and the subsequent violence between the two communities.

In his initial response to the violence, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yedurappa said action would be taken against those responsible for the attack on churches, but asked missionaries not to indulge in forcible conversions. (dpa)