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Journalism of Courage
A mob allegedly vandalised a church in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur city and attacked a police team trying to pacify them Monday afternoon. Narayanpur Superintendent of Police (SP) Sadanand Kumar allegedly suffered a head injury, which left him bleeding, while other personnel had minor injuries.
The incident happened between 1 pm and 2 pm when the mob gathered near the Viswadeepti school and started vandalising a church on its premises, said the police. “When the SP learnt about it he and his team rushed there to stop the violence and were attacked,” said an official.
It took around an hour for the police to bring the situation under control. They said they would register a case and arrest the accused. A protest was being planned against the church by a group of people alleging illegal conversions and construction of churches.
Speaking to the media from the hospital where he is being treated, Sadanand Kumar said, “We called the protestors to meet us. The collector and I spoke with them in the collector’s office. We appealed to them to keep the protest peaceful. But some among them chose violence and went to attack the church,”
“After getting this information, I reached the spot with my team and tried to stop the mob and convince them. They paid heed to us and were going back but suddenly someone hit me from behind and I got injured. Still, we acted with patience and managed to disperse the crowd. We will take action according to the law in the case in time,” he added.
District collector Ajeet Vasant told The Indian Express, “The vandals had kept a sabha (meeting) at 12 pm. We met their leaders before the sabha in our cabin and they promised us that the meeting would be peaceful and they would not resort to any violence but still they did.”
The idea behind the meeting was to submit a memorandum to the collector’s office. “The memorandum was given to us by Sarva Adivasi Samaj. They gave such a complaint in the past as well. They alleged illegal conversions and illegal construction of churches are happening,” Vasant said.
He said the attack was “sponsored” by an Adivasi samaj. However, the police are in the process of registering an FIR and the name of the accused tribal group would not be clear until then.
Vasant admitted that there have been “minor” attacks on Christians in the recent past but not as big as this one.
Last Tuesday, a church in Karnataka’s Mysuru district was allegedly vandalised by unknown attackers who damaged a statue of baby Jesus and stole money from a donation box. The incident took place at the St Mary’s Church in Mysuru district’s Periyapatna and the police suspected it was a case of theft.
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