By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: Two to three unidentified persons entered the 150-year-old St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral Church in Cantonment area of Jabalpur town of Madhya Pradesh and set ablaze the statues and the altar on Thursday night around 8.15 pm.
The fire tenders were rushed to douse the flames before it could spread. The statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, sanctuary, Holy Bible, Holy Cross and other articles on the altar and the carpet were damaged.
Hearing the news thousands of angry people gathered in the Church demanding immediate arrest of the culprits. They blocked all roads leading to the City. Following this in Jabalpur the state government has posted police at Churches and Convents all over the state.
It may be recalled here that this church which was very badly damaged during the May 22nd 1997 earthquake that hit Jabalpur district. Following this the Church was rebuilt. This Church is in the midst of a large campus and surrounded by many Christian institutions and house. Police and the district administration is tight lipped on the entire issue.
It may be noted that the incident took place a few hours before the visit of the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to the Jabalpur City as part of his “Janashirvad Yatra”, part of the election campaign. The Christian community is planning to meet the Chief Minister asking for strict action on Yogesh Agarwal and security all over the state.
It may be mentioned here that this incident comes close to the one when an 86-year-old St. Bartholomew Church was completely burnt down in Ratlam town of the state in the wee hours of September 7 last. Apart from this a night watchman of a Christian institution was shot at and injured by a group of unidentified five persons with Air Guns in the wee hours of September 16 when he refused to call the sisters of the convent in Banduha village under the Ghatia Police station area in Ujjain district of the state. The police have falsely implicated Christians in both these cases.
Meanwhile, a Press release issued by Fr. Anand Muttungal, Spokesperson Catholic Council of Bishops, Madhya Pradesh, said a Hindu Extremist group named Dharm Raksha Sena alleged to have set fire the Cathedral Church of the Catholic Diocese of Jabalpur in the state.
An eye witnesses said:” We saw three persons running fast on a motorbike from the Church campus. We did not know the reason, after sometime we came to know that Church has been set on fire,”, the release stated
Jabalpur’s St. Aloysius College Principal Fr. Dr. Davis George said:” the members of the Dharm Raksha Sena led by Yogesh Agrawal threatened the Parish Priest Fr. Rocky that he will burn the Church and challenged the parish priest to stop him. Since Fr. Rocky did not see anybody setting ablaze the church he chose to register FIR on unidentified persons”. “We will be amending the FIR and include the names who came to threaten the parish priest”, Fr. Dr. George added.
On 31st August 2008 the same extremists group came to this same Church to burn the effigy of the Holy Father. The youths and police did not allow them to do anything of that sort.
Meanwhile, Jabalpur Bishop Dr. Jerald Almeda said:” On Thursday around 11 am we had received some information that in Madhya Pradesh many Churches will be attacked. I never thought of Cathedral since it is very much inside the campus. It is one of the most unfortunate times for us, we need to stand united.”
Jabalpur diocese decided to close down all institutions run buy the Christians in Jabalpur district on Friday.
Archbishop Dr. Leo Cornelio held an emergency meeting in Bhopal. He has condemned the incident and asked for the immediate arrest of the culprits.
Madhya Pradesh Isai Mahasangh has called an emergency meeting of office-bearers to chalk out the strategy to deal with the communal situation.
“Looking into the whole communal attacks on Christian community in the country and naming whole Muslims as terrorists, I am tend to believe that It is a vicious technique of Sangh Parivar and its Gujarat mascot to install a desperate man in the waiting list to be the Prime Minister of India, because he might cross to his eighties if does not become PM this time”, said Fr. Anand Muttungal, who is also coordinator of Madhya Pradesh Isai Mahasangh. ([email protected])