From: [email protected]
To:
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
“CHRISTIANS FOR PEACE”
SOLIDARITY RALLY
With increasing incidents of
violence and hatred against the Christian community and its churches and
institutes and the Government’s total silence through all of this, we are
deeply concerned as a community.
The Bombay Catholic Sabha together with Indian Christian Voice and other
Christian organisations and groups are holding a Rally at Azad Maidan on
Monday 9 February at 3 pm to protest against the recent attacks on Churches
in Delhi and the arrest of peaceful demonstrators yesterday. Noted social
activists and heads of various religious groups will address the Rally.
We invite you to attend the Rally along with your friends and family in large
numbers. Plz
encourage as many as possible to join in the Rally and make it a success.
Gordon D'Souza
President - The BCS
Police crack down on Christian protesters
Priests, nuns among those detained during peaceful demonstration in Delhi.
Posted on February 6, 2015, 8:40 AM
Police surround demonstrators protesting outside the Sacred Heart
Cathedral in Delhi on Thursday
New Delhi:
Delhi police on Thursday detained more than 100 Christian
protesters, including priests and nuns, who were dragged into police
buses during a demonstration against the most recent in a string of
attacks on churches.
Holding placards and shouting slogans,
approximately 500 protesters gathered in front of the Sacred Heart
Cathedral to demonstrate against what they said was increasing incidents
of Christian persecution in the national capital.
Fr Savarimuthu Shankar, spokesperson of the Delhi archdiocese, said the police
treated the protesters ruthlessly.
“They
did not even spare the women and the elderly. They were even kicking
the people who fell down on the ground after the crackdown,” he added.
According
to Fr Shankar, who was present at the protest, the group had been
behaving peacefully — singing hymns and offering prayers.
Samuel
Jayakumar of the National Council of Churches in India, who was also one
of the protesters, told ucanews.com that a delegation from the
community has gone to meet federal home minister Rajnath Singh to bring
to his attention the concerns of the Christian community regarding the
recent attacks.
The protest, which was staged following a
February 2 attack on a church in south Delhi, comes just two days before
the Delhi assembly elections.
The attackers broke the tabernacle
of the St Alphonsa’s church and scattered the host. They also entered
the Sacristy of the church.
It was the fifth attack on a church
in Delhi in a span of two months. The community has been facing such
incidents since December 1, when fire engulfed the St Sebastian Church
in the Dilshad Garden area of Delhi.
A few days after the
church-burning incident, a Catholic Church in Jasola area was stoned by
unidentified people. A crib was allegedly burned earlier this month
while a service was being held in a church in the Rohini area of Delhi.
On January 14, a Catholic church was attacked and its grotto damaged by
three unidentified men.
Fr Dominic Emmanuel, one of the protesters detained by police, called the
crackdown “brutal and illegal”.
“We
have all the right to make our voices heard. We were legitimately
protesting against the harm done on our churches,” he told ucanews.com
from inside the police station.
Police officials were not available for comment on Thursday despite repeated
attempts by ucanews.com.
NDTV quoted senior police officer Mukesh Kumar Meena as saying the group had
“no permission to protest on the road”.
“They can't just march to the home minister's residence. We have to protect the
residence of VIPs," he reportedly said.
Source: ucanews.com
