The National People’s Party, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has expressed concern about harassment, intimidation and vandalism against Christian communities across several states during the Christmas season, The Shillong Times reported on Friday.
Several incidents of attacks on Christians or disruptions to Christmas celebrations were reported in December across the country including in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur, Assam’s Nalbari, Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur, Kerala’s Palakkad, Uttarakhand’s Haridwar and Delhi.
In this backdrop, the NPP’s Meghalaya working president Hamletson Dohling said the party would urge the Meghalaya government to write to the state governments concerned, seeking serious action to prevent such attacks.
“We strongly condemn these incidents and assert that they must not recur,” Dohling said. “We do not accept and cannot tolerate such incidents.”
He added that he had conveyed the organisation’s concerns directly to party chief and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma.
He also warned that unchecked actions by extremists could erode the country’s secular fabric, The Shillong Times reported.
The Nagaland Baptist Church Council also wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday expressing “grave concern” and “deep regret” over what it described as an increase in attacks on Christians across the country, particularly during the Christmas season, and urged his intervention, the Morung Express reported.
The council cited data from the United Christians Forum recording more than 600 incidents of violence between...
