By Matters India Reporter
Adilabad, April 17, 2024: Paramilitary personnel have been deployed at a Catholic school in the southern Indian state of Telangana after right wing Hindu activists vandalized it and assaulted a priest.
The attackers on April 16 accused the school management of hurting religious sentiments by questioning a few students who had attended class with religious dress instead of the uniform.
A mob wearing saffron colored shirts and shawls entered the premises of the St. Mother Teresa English Medium School in Kannepally, a village in Mancherial district, some 275 km northeast of Hyderabad, the state capital.
The mob shouting “Jai Shree Ram” threw stones at the statue of St Mother Teresa installed at the school’s main gate and destroyed the security office.
They then marched inside the school campus, destroying the gate and entered the school’s first and second floors and broke window glasses, flower pots and the office room.
They assaulted Father Jaimon Joseph, the school manager who, however, was saved by other school officials.
“They slapped my face and punched my stomach. Someone even hit me from behind,” Father Joseph, a member of the Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament, told Matters India on April 17.
The priest denied “as totally baseless” the allegation that the school had not allowed students to wear their religious dress.
The school is managed by the congregation’s Zion province, based at Kozhikode, Kerala, another southern Indian state. It comes under the Adilabad Syro-Malabar diocese and the bishop’s residence is around 160 km northwest of the school.
Father Joby, the principal, also from the congregation, summoned them to the office and sought explanation. When they informed him that it was part of a 21-day special religious ritual, the priest asked them to bring their parents to know more about it.
Instead of bringing parents, one student released a video, accusing the principal of refusing students permission to wear the religious dress.
“As the video footage circulated, some 100 men stormed the campus and later on close to 1,000 people reached the school and vandalized it, Father Joseph narrated.
Meanwhile, the state district administration has beefed up security around the schools deploying 18 Central Reserve Police Force personnel.
The priests also lodged a complaint with the police, but no one has been arrested even after identifying some 120 people from the mob.
Father Joseph said they have learned that the police have registered a case against the principal and others for allegedly hurting religious sentiments among other charges. “But we are not officially informed of it,” he added.
Christians make up close to 2 percent of Telangana’s 35 million population.