Chhattisgarh, attack on a Christian church. A policeman injured
Clashes in the Narayanpur district have continued since mid-December. Christian leaders had tried to draw the attention of the local authorities to the interreligious tensions, but they were ignored. Yesterday's demonstration should have been peaceful, but some tribesmen indulged in violence. The parish priest: 'The situation is very tense'.
Raipur (AsiaNews) - A Christian church was stormed yesterday in the tribal region of Bastar, within the district of Narayanpur, in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh, after weeks of religious tensions. A police officer, who was on the spot in an attempt to quell the clashes, was injured.
Violence against local Christian families has been going on since mid-December. Just over a fortnight ago, there were coordinated attacks against a series of Christian villages, while on January 1, a mob - reportedly of 4-500 people - attacked Christian families in Gorra, who were accused of following a 'foreign religion' and were ordered to go and live in the forest.
Following these clashes, in which at least eight people were injured, part of the population called for a strike and a demonstration in protest against the Christians, who were once again accused of conducting forced conversions. Suddenly, some tribals stormed the Sacred Heart Church in Bastar, according to what Fr Muppathonchira Thomas, head of the Jagdalpur diocese, told AsiaNews: "The crowd surrounded and vandalised the church, the grotto and the presbytery".
According to initial reports, the assailants broke in around 2 p.m. (local time) and started throwing stones at the building. They then broke down the door of the church and destroyed everything they found inside with bars and sticks, including a statue of Jesus (see photo)
Police Superintendent Sadanand Kumar, who arrived on the scene to stop the attack, was wounded in the head. Speaking to reporters, he said: 'The tribal communities had called a meeting and their leaders had contacted me so that the event could be held peacefully. But suddenly some people attacked the church and police teams rushed to the scene. I was attacked from behind. Investigations will be carried out against the assailants'.
It took some time for police and the local administration to restore calm. "The situation is very tense," said Fr Jomon Devasia, pastor of the Sacred Heart Church, who was saved because he was at Viswadeepti High School at the time of the attack.
"The church, which is more than 50 years old, had been rebuilt five years ago and now everything is destroyed," the priest lamented, adding that the police had been informed in the morning of the gathering of thousands of people, but had assured the church authorities that nothing untoward would happen.
The president of the Christian Society of Narayanpur, Sukhman Potai, also told the local media that he had asked for criminal cases to be registered against those who had unleashed violence against Christian families in the past weeks, but according to him, the local administration had not taken any concrete measures to quell the violence in the villages: on the contrary, it had tried to minimise the clashes.
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