Christian education in India in as many days, investigators said Thursday, September 14.
US-based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC) told BosNewsLife, it learned that the Good Shepherd Mission School in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district was vandalized on September 11.
It quoted a local Christian, who requested anonymity, as saying that the attack was apparently organized by several Muslim teachers of the school, who were angry that a colleague was fired for allegedly blackmailing a student of ‘Class 11’, the Western equivalent of 11th grade.
"Some students of a nearby government college demolished a wall, smashed windows and damaged furniture of the school and shouted slogans against Christian missionaries alleging they were converting Muslims," the source reportedly said. "They tried to attack the founder of the school, Fr. Jim Borst, and the principal, Sister Veronica, but they managed to escape unhurt," he added.
MORE DEMANDS
"Besides demanding that the school cancel the suspension of the teacher, they started asking for better salary and permanent status of their appointment as teachers." ICC explained.
A local Christian reportedly said that, "These teachers put up a poster in the school in Urdu language saying they demands are in the name of Allah. Not knowing that the poster had the name of Allah, the principal tore it, after which the teachers incited the Muslim students of the government college to attack the school…"
The source added that Muslim militants alleged that "the school had insulted Allah and that its administration was converting Muslim students."
STAFF DETAINED
Soon after the attack, police arrived and took Fr. Borst and Sister Veronica away from the school and gave them protection, said ICC, which has close contacts with allegedly persecuted Christians in India and around the world.
District authorities also ordered the school closed for at least five days. The district magistrate also stared an inquiry into the allegation of conversion made against the school, ICC said.
"The school has been closed for five days as a precautionary measure in view of tension following allegations that it was trying to motivate people for conversion under the grab of spreading education," District Magistrate Mehraj Ahmad Kakroo told media. An inquiry report was expected by Monday, September 18.
DUTCH MILL
"Fr. Borst, a Catholic priest of the Dutch Mill Hill order, had been living in Kashmir for over 40 years. Two years ago, Muslim fundamentalists lobbied the state government to force him to move out. However, the elderly priest was allowed to continue to stay in the region," ICC said.
Monday’s attack came a day after BosNewsLife learned that dozens of Hindu militants stormed a Christian school in Lucknow, the capital of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh late Sunday, September 10. The militants threatened nuns and vandalized the complex, Indian Christians told BosNewsLife.
"At least 30 or 40 activists of the youth wing of the [Hindu] Bharatiya Janata Party stormed into Lucknow’s Loreto Convent School Sunday evening, resorting to vandalism and intimidating helpless nuns living on the campus," said Sajan K. George, president of the advocacy group Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC).
SMASHING GLASS
A nun, who did not want to be identified, said the militants "started smashing the glass panes on doors and windows with wooden rods and stones and also flung our flower-pots on to the window panes of the school chapel. Fortunately the police arrived on the scene following which they ran away and we were spared."
The attack has however raised alarm bells among human rights groups who have increasingly expressed concern about attacks against Christians in India, a mainly Hindu nation of nearly 1.1 billion people. (With BosNewsLife reports and Research).
