MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: Thousands of Christian-run schools and colleges across India were closed yesterday to protest recent Hindu mob attacks on churches and homes in eastern India that have left at least 11 people dead.
Violence has rocked Orissa state since the killing of a Hindu leader last week, which police blamed on Maoist rebels but Hindu activists pinned on Christian militants.
In apparent retaliation, Hindu hard-liners set ablaze a Christian orphanage Monday, killing a Christian woman and seriously injuring a priest.
The violence has spread to include mob attacks on churches, shops and homes.
Roughly 30,000 schools were closed yesterday to condemn the violence, said Joseph D’Souza, president of the All Indian Christian Council. Churches planned hold special services to pray for peace and solidarity, he said.
“The peaceful protest by closing schools and colleges is a signal to those inciting religious hatred and disharmony,” said Babu Joseph, spokesman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. “The government must hold an independent inquiry into the Orissa killings.”
An additional 12,000 Roman Catholic educational institutions joined in yesterday’s shutdown after a meeting in Mumbai. Archbishop Oswald Gracias called for the government to better protect minority groups.
“Innocents should not be targeted,” he said. “We have appealed for calm.”
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the Catholic Bishops Conference of India in a meeting late Thursday that the Orissa incidents were a “national shame” and promised the government would make every effort to restore normalcy, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
The Christian delegation submitted a memorandum to Singh, calling for his “immediate intervention in Kandhamal District of Orissa which is again witnessing violence against the Christian community.”
During his weekly Vatican address, Pope Benedict XVI said the attacks had “profoundly saddened” him.
He also described as “deplorable” the killing of a Hindu leader, saying he was against “any attack on human life.”
During a Cabinet meeting yesterday, it was said that the government wanted a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the clashes. Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters after the meeting: “We want a CBI inquiry. The government’s image and its commitment to secularism cannot be compromised. We hope the chief minister will take strong action.”
“We would have liked ideally that this matter be handed over to the CBI because those responsible should get justice immediately as judicial probe takes longer time,” Sibal said.
It is, however, for the state government to recommend a CBI probe as the center cannot take the decision on its own, Sibal stated. Laying stress that it was matter of “grave concern” to the government, Sibal said: “We will not allow secularism to be undermined.”
The center is in touch with state government “and every effort would be made to restore normalcy in the state,” according to an official press release.
— With input from Nilofar Suhrawardy
