Attacks disrupt Sunday mass in Bangalore
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For Christians in the city, Sunday morning brought shocking news of desecration of two places of worship in Hebbal and Rajarajeshwarinagar in Bangalore late on Saturday night. –
The Hindu reports The attacks disrupted Sunday mass. Local people of the Christian
community were angry, particularly because the attacks took place
despite the presence of the police. They staged protests, and blocked
with burning tyres the road leading to the church in Mariyannapalya.
AFP reports The Press Trust of India news agency said the vandalised churches were
on the outskirts of Bangalore, the capital of southern Karnataka state,
which is ruled by the Hindu nationalist BJP party.
Reuters reports Police detained a group of Hindus in Karnataka over weekend attacks on
churches, officials said on Monday, as three states ruled by Hindu
nationalists struggled to stop attacks on Christians.
UCAN reports Digal and his wife Runuma were staying in a relief camp for people
who fled the violence but went to their village to collect some
household articles. On their way back to the camp, Hindu fanatics
attacked them and killed Digal in front of his wife, who managed to
escape the mob and reach the camp, Father Dibakar Parichha, the
archdiocesan public relations officer, said in a Sept. 20 note to UCA
News.
In another event, a Christian girl was gang-raped in Magadengia
village, also in Kandhamal, the note said. It reported the girl was
staying at a relief camp but had gone to see her grandmother in the
village. Fanatics picked her up from the house, took her into the
jungle and raped her.
UCAN further reports Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore, based in the Karnataka capital,
2,060 kilometers south of New Delhi, said in a statement that the state
government has “miserably” failed to curb violence against Christians.
The attacks are a “shame” to all religions, Archbishop Moras, who is on
a tour of the Holy Land, said in his statement. “If the state cannot
control violence against the minority Christians, it has to own (up to)
its inefficiency and step down,” said the statement released to media.
The Economic Times [IN] reports The US has criticised the Gujarat and Rajasthan state governments for enacting
or amending “anti-conversion” laws while acknowledging that the central
government generally respected freedom of religion.
“The (Indian) constitution
provides for freedom of religion, and the national government generally
respected this right in practice,” noted the US State Department in its Annual
Report on International Religious Freedom
“However, some state and local
governments, including those of Gujarat and Rajasthan, enacted or amended
“anti-conversion” laws,” said the congressionally mandated report covering the
period July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008.
The Morung Express reports The Nagaland State BJP Unit expressed sincere concern over the
atrocities perpetuated on the Christians of Orissa and Karnataka and
affirmed its solidarity with the affected families. The press release
issued by the party Spokesman, Basu Damani, and Vice President and
Spokesman of Nagaland, T L Merry, stated that the Nagaland unit BJP had
issued a plethora of vociferous resentments and written condemnations
against the perpetrators of atrocities on the Christian minorities.
Besides this, it is also said to have been in touch with the BJP
national leaders and the concerned state authorities, taking a firm
stand that any injustice anywhere on the Christian communities would
not be compromised.