PRE-PLANNED ATTACKS ON CHRISTIANS IN MANIPUR

WebDesk July 19, 2023 3 minutes read

Amid minorities being targeted in BJP-ruled India, Christians are under growing attack by Hindu extremists in the volatile Indian state of Manipur. Manipur State has 41.39% Hindus, 41.29% Christians & 8.4% Muslims. RSS mentored Modi plans to convert India as Hindu Rashtra – at the cost of communal diversity of country. Thus a Hinduized state is now being transformed into a Hindutivized polity. Christian organizations and community leaders have said that attacks on Churches in Manipur are pre-planned and hinted at BJP 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. Catholic Church leaders in Kerala have criticized the government led by PM Modi for the ongoing violence in Manipur, with a bishop alleging that it is an act of “genocide sponsored by the government”.

Father Jacob G Palackappilly, Deputy Secretary General, Kerala Catholic Bishops Council said, “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.” He added, “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.” 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.” It’s like what happened in Kandhamal in Odisha in 2007. There was a planned attack against Christians then after some Hindu organizations spread negative propaganda against the Christian community. A similar negative campaign is taking place against one community in Manipur. 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. On one hand, PM Modi claims that there is no discrimination in India. While minorities are prime victims of BJP’s hindutva policies. Christians and Muslims are being victimized through brutal torture and unjustified mob attacks in North India. 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 burn 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?”