Clashes in the Narayanpur district have been going on since mid-December. Christian leaders had tried to draw the attention of the local authorities to the inter-religious tensions, but were not listened to. Yesterday’s demonstration should have been peaceful, but some tribals were carried away by violence. The priest: “The situation is very tense.”
Raipur () – A Christian church was attacked yesterday in the Bastar tribal region, in the Narayanpur district, in the eastern state of Chhattisgarh, after several weeks of religious tensions. A police officer who went to the scene to calm down the attackers was injured.
Violence against local Christian families has continued since mid-December. A little over two weeks ago there were coordinated attacks against several Christian villages and on January 1 a mob – between 400 and 500 people according to witnesses – attacked Christian families in Gorra, accusing them of following a “foreign religion”. and ordered them to go live in the jungle.
At least eight people were injured in these clashes and a part of the population had called a strike and a protest against Christians, accused once again of carrying out forced conversions. Unexpectedly, some tribals attacked the Church of the Sacred Heart in Bastar, Father Muppathonchira Thomas, head of the Jagdalpur diocese, told : “The crowd surrounded and destroyed the church and the presbytery.”
According to the first reconstructions, the attackers broke in around 2:00 p.m. (local time) and began throwing stones at the building. They then broke down the door of the church and destroyed everything they found inside with sticks and bars, including a statue of Jesus (see photo).
Police Superintendent Sadanand Kumar, who came to the scene to stop the attack, was injured in the head. Speaking to reporters, he said: “The tribal communities had called a meeting and their leaders had contacted me to make it happen peacefully. But suddenly some people attacked the church and police squads rushed to the scene. “. They attacked me from behind. Investigations will be carried out against the attackers.”
The police and local administration were slow to restore calm. “The situation is very tense,” declared Fr. Jomon Devasia, a parish priest at Sacred Heart Church, who survived because he was at Viswadeepti Secondary School at the time of the attack. “The church, which is over 50 years old, was rebuilt five years ago and now everything has been destroyed,” lamented the priest. He added that the police had been informed in the morning of the concentration of thousands of people, but had assured the ecclesiastical authorities that nothing bad would happen.
The president of the Narayanpur Christian Society, Sukhman Potai, also told local media that he had called for criminal cases to be brought against those who had unleashed violence against Christian families in recent weeks but, he said, the local administration has not taken no concrete measures to appease the violence in the villages and, on the contrary, has tried to minimize the confrontations.
