Tension Mounts As Christians Protest Attacks On Karnataka Churches
MANGALORE, India, September 15, 2008--Christian-Hindu tension has gripped Karnataka after Christians protested attacks on churches in the southern Indian state.
The broken windowpanes of the Poor Clares of the Perpetual Adoration Monastery in Mangalore, southern India, on Sept. 14, after it was attacked.
Hindu groups have claimed responsibility for the Sept. 14 attacks on 15 churches in various parts of the state. They said the attacks were in retaliation for Christians indulging in religious conversion.
Ten of the affected churches were in Dakshina Kannada district, a Catholic stronghold in the territory of Mangalore diocese. Three churches were damaged in Chikmagalur and two in Udupi districts. Most affected churches belonged to Pentecostal sects.
On Sept. 15, Bishop Aloysius Paul D'Souza of Mangalore appeared on a local television channel asking Catholics to remain calm and avoid violent protests.
Catholic leaders in Dakshina Kannada, which includes Mangalore city, 2,290 kilometers south of New Delhi, had called for a general strike that day. The strike paralyzed normal life in the district. Christians gathered before all churches, defying a three-day prohibition on large gatherings that the administration imposed following the attacks.
In Mangalore that day sectarian tension increased after police drove around 500 protesting Catholics inside a church and locked them in from outside, while some 200 members of Bajrang Dal (party of the strong and stout), a Hindu group involved in the attacks, waited outside. The police released the Catholics later in the day. As they came out, some skirmishes developed with the Hindu militants, but the police chased away both groups.
In another incident, police entered a church and beat Catholics praying for atonement for church desecration, eyewitnesses told UCA News.
Stany Alvares, a Catholic youth leader in Mangalore, told UCA News the attacks and police's "hostile attitude" have "deeply hurt" Christians.
Satheesh Kumar, top police official in the district, told UCA News his department was able to prevent more harm from being done, because it had received hints about the attacks on churches.
ia_mangalore.gifHowever, the precaution could not save the Poor Clares of the Perpetual Adoration Monastery in Mangalore. Despite three police guards, miscreants forcefully entered the convent.
Sister Mary Carmel, the convent's superior, told UCA News about 30 people came to the chapel where people were praying before the Blessed Sacrament.
The intruders shouted anti-Christian slogans, destroyed windows, furniture and the tabernacle, and injured some of the worshippers.
The apparently organized attacks on churches took place between 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m., when people were in churches for Sunday services. Attackers destroyed religious objects such as crosses, tabernacles and bibles, as well as furniture, and wounded several people including some pastors.
Several parishes were holding Mass when news of the attack on the nuns' chapel reached them. Worshippers abruptly ended their celebrations of the feast of the Holy Cross and joined protesters.
Some Muslims also reportedly supported Christians in Mangalore. Several people were wounded when the police baton-charged protesters. Police alleged the protesters had turned violent and damaged police and other vehicles, but Christians blamed the police.
Police arrested some 20 people, both Hindus and Christians, on Sept. 14.
The administration has called for additional forces to control the situation in Mangalore. Police squads moved around the city and guarded churches, and strategic and sensitive points.
M.B. Puranik, a local leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (world Hindu council) told a Sept. 14 press conference his group has great regard for Catholics and Protestants, but they should not support conversion or insult Hindu Gods.
Mahendra Kumar, Bajrang Dal state convener, said his people attacked only prayer centers that indulged in conversion.
Stephen Quodros, secretary of Mangalore diocesan pastoral council, noted Mangalore Christians normally shun violence. "But this time, they are all virtually in the streets to express their grief," he told UCA News. (UCAN)
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