Minister asks security service to assess tensions after Kaunas mosque incident

Lithuania’s Interior Minister Martynas Katelynas has asked the State Security Department to assess the situation and potential risks after bikers displayed a pig’s head outside a mosque in Kaunas last week, LRT reported Monday. He said the incident reflected growing tensions over migration.

“What we saw outside the Kaunas mosque on Friday is a consequence of growing tensions in society over migration,” Katelynas said in a Facebook post.

He said the issue was not Lithuania’s Tatars, who have been part of society for centuries and contributed to the country’s history, but the new migration reality facing Lithuania. According to Katelynas, the number of foreigners arriving in Lithuania has risen sharply in recent years and new communities are forming.

“The state must know who is arriving and whether threats to public and national security are emerging,” the minister said.

Katelynas also raised concerns about religious services held at unofficial locations in other cities, saying the public lacked information about their organisers and whether they complied with the law.

He said people had the right to protest and gather peacefully, but protests could not exceed legal limits. Respect for different cultures and religions, he added, could not mean an absence of rules.

Kaunas County Police said Monday that they had opened a pretrial investigation into incitement against a group of people and interference with religious rites following the incident at Ramybės Park, a park where Muslim prayers were being held. Bikers reportedly played loud music, revved their motorcycles, chanted patriotic slogans and displayed a pig’s head.

No one has been declared a suspect in the investigation. Police have identified the person who was holding the pig’s head, as well as several other people.