Karnataka: authorities back anti-Christian violence. Sacred Heart Junior College is target of threats and attacks by Hindu extremists. Thousands march to protest the violence.
The principal of the Sacred Heart Junior College makes the claim after his school becomes the target of threats and attacks by Hindu extremists. Thousands take part in a march to protest the violence against the school. Shimoga bishop voices his concerns.
New Delhi – The frequent acts of violence against Christians in Karnataka are carried out with "the tacit support of the administration," this according to Fr Doming Dias, principal of the Sacred Heart Junior College in Shimoga, a Catholic school that has been threatened and attacked in the recent past.
The All Christians Shimoga District Association and the Federation of Karnataka Christians Association held a rally to protest the attacks against the college by Hindu fundamentalists.
Nearly 5,000 Christians, including people from the neighbouring dioceses of Mangalore and Chikmangalur, took part in the street action.
At the end the leaders handed a memorandum to the Shimoga District Commissioner Anil Kumar
Fr Doming Dias explained that the college he runs "provides basic education to about 700 pupils of every caste or creed."
"There are about 80 Catholics and 20 [other] Christians; about a 100 Muslims and 500 Hindus," he said.
"This academic year began in June and the school textbook sports the image of the Sacred Heart to protect and guide the school. [But] on July 23, Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal stormed my office and ordered me to remove the image from the books within three days. They shouted false accusations that I had converted people to Christianity. I told them that it was only the image of our patron and that we had the right to put it on the cover. But they just repeated their ultimatum."
On July 27 "a large mob of extremists carrying saffron flags came into the Cathedral compound where the school is located shouting anti-Christian slogans. They accused management of blaspheming against their reli
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