Thiruvananthapuram, July 17, 2023 (PPI-OT): The Christian organisations and community leaders have said that attacks on Churches in Manipur are pre-planned and hinted at Bharatiya Janata Party leadership behind the violence in Manipur state of India. Spokesperson for the State Kerala Catholic Bishops Council has criticised the BJP government for the attacks on Christian institutions in Manipur
The archbishop of Thalassery in north Kerala likened the violence in Manipur to the violent massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. “Why is it that only one community is the target of all the violence? Had it been a conflict between two ethnic communities, there would be damage on both sides. But only churches were destroyed,” Father Jacob G Palackappilly, deputy secretary general, Kerala Catholic Bishops Council, told Indian media.
“We got the message from Christian religious leaders in Manipur that the target of violence had been the churches, Christian institutions and Christians as a whole,” he said. It was through some journalists who visited the state that the world came to know what exactly was happening there. “We became very concerned when we were told that Christians belonging to both the Meiteis and Kukis were being attacked. When we got in touch with church leaders there, we heard the same thing.”
The Kerala MP, Hibi Eden, said that even BJP Christian MLAs and BJP Christian supporters felt insecure there which is a very worrying situation for all of us. It’s like what happened in Kandhamal in Odisha in 2007. There was a planned attack against Christians then after some Hindu organisations spread negative propaganda against the Christian community.
A similar negative campaign is taking place against one community in Manipur. We don’t want to name anyone. We want to say there is a negative campaign by some vested interest groups, he added. The Archbishop of Imphal, Dominic Lumon has said that religious attacks have been carried out in the state of Manipur leading to 249 churches belonging to the Meitei Christians being destroyed within 36 hours of the start of the conflict between Meitei and Kuki communities. The archbishop also indicated that the attacks may have been pre-planned and some pastors have been told not to rebuild the churches.
In a letter as reported by the Indian Express, the archbishop wrote, “The wonder is in the midst of the fight between the Kukis and the Meiteis, the mob burns down and destroy 249 churches located in the Meitei heartland? How is it that there was almost a natural attack on the church in the Meitei localities itself and how did the mob know where the churches were located if not previously planned?”
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