Several churches in India vandalised in past few months; 2023 begins with another attack in Chhattisgarh

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Jan. 9 (EMN): Several incidents of miscreants vandalising churches and attacking Christians had been reported in India over the past few months. The New Year started on a bad note as well with a mob vandalising a church in Chhattisgarh on January 2, 2023.

Here are some of the most recent reports of such incidents in India:

Chhattisgarh: A day after the New Year celebration earlier this month, a mob vandalised a church in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur city and even attacked a police team trying to pacify them.

Narayanpur Superintendent of Police (SP) Sadanand Kumar suffered a head injury in the attack and other police personnel also suffered minor injuries.

The police said that the incident happened between 1 pm and 2 pm on January 2 when the mob gathered near the Viswadeepti School and started vandalising a church on its premises. The police added that they would register a case and arrest the accused.

Karnataka: Another incident took place on Dec. 27, 2022, where a church in Karnataka’s Mysuru district was allegedly ransacked by unknown attackers who damaged a statue of baby Jesus and stole money from a donation box.

The incident came to light on Dec. 27 around 6 pm when the staff found the infant Jesus statue vandalised and money from the donation box missing at St Mary’s Church in Piriyapatna town, Mysuru district, according to reports.

The pastor of the church filed a complaint with the police.

Mysuru Superintendent of Police Seema Latkar told the media that prima facie it looked like a case of theft as the attackers made away with money and a collection box that was outside the church.

The police had filed a case under IPC section 295 A in connection with the incident.

Punjab: On August 30, 2022, masked miscreants broke into a church in Thakkarpura village of Punjab’s Tarn Taran district, damaging its pieta depicting the Virgin Mary cradling Christ's body and setting ablaze a parked car of the administrator on their way out.

According to a fact-finding report ‘Christians under Attack in India’ by Association for the Protection of Civil Rights, United Against Hate, and United Christian Forum, published by The Leaflet, more than 300 incidents of violence targeting the Christian community were reported in India during 2021 with Uttar Pradesh topping list with 80 cases, followed by Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, and Kerala.