By Matters India Reporter
Palayamkottai: Catholic and Protestant Church leaders have joined political parties to demand strong action against vandals of cemeteries in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu.
A resolution passed at an all-party meeting chaired by Catholic Bishop S Antonysamy Palayamkottai noted that the attacks on graves were conducted in an organized manner with the ulterior motive of triggering religious clashes among people.
As many as 86 graves of the cemetery attached to Sacred Heart Church in Udaiyaarpatti under Palayamkottai diocese were found damaged on October 17.
At the meeting, the political parties, the Catholic diocese of Palayamkottai and Church of South India Tirunelveli diocese condemned the vandalism. A delegation comprising leaders of most national and all regional political parties and led Bishop Antonysamy met the Tirunelveli collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish.
They appealed the collector to ensure that the miscreants are arrested under the Goondas Act.
In another resolution, the meeting noted that the cemeteries were badly damaged and would require at least 3 million rupees to repair them. The government should bear the cost, it asserted.
Meanwhile, the police have arrested eight people, including the present of the local unit of a Hindu radical group, in connection with the cemetery desecration.
Besides the granite cross atop the tombs, the polished granite tops on the graves also suffered damage. A portion of the compound wall around the cemetery was broken. The desecration triggered anger among Christians, particularly families who had their kin buried there.
The district administration and police should initiate the most stringent action against those who were working overtime to create animosity and clash between people of different faiths, the meeting said.
The collector assured them of appropriate action.
“Although Christians affiliated to Sacred Heart Church at Udaiyaarpatti are buried here over the last 40 years after buying and registering the land for this purpose, a few affiliated to fringe religious groups, with the nefarious intention of triggering clashes between Christians and Hindus, are doing this,” parishioners said.
The local leaders have condemned it and called for immediate arrest of culprits.
Large number of Christians resorted to a road blockade stir on October 18.
As the news spread about the damage to the cemetery, people assembled near the CSI Church and shouted slogans and demanded arrest of the culprits.
Though the police assured to get the case solved, the people resorted to a road blockade on the Tirunelveli-Madurai stretch.
As a sequel, the police had to divert vehicles on the bypass for about an hour.
The Thatchanallur police have registered a case and ACP Satish Kumar said that special teams have been formed to nab the suspects.
The agitators dispersed after the authorities assured action against the culprits.
(With inputs from The Hindu)