Premier Pledges Punishment in India’s Church Attacks

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited a violence-hit region in western India on Sunday and demanded severe punishment for anyone attacking houses of worship, after Hindu militants burned or demolished churches there.

“Exemplary punishment should be awarded to perpetrators of such crimes,” he said in Ahwa, a town in the western state of Gujarat, a region that has been marked by more than 100 acts of violence against Christians in the past year.

The national government will ensure that attacks on minorities are punished, the Press Trust of India quoted Vajpayee as saying.

Priests and nuns in Gujarat met Vajpayee to recount tales of church burnings and stonings that went on for several days after Christmas.

“I visited the areas and was shocked,” Vajpayee said.

“India is secular and, in this country, to target places of worship, whether a church or a temple, is not just a crime but also a step that will break the unity of this country.”

Militant Hindus say that Christian missionaries are forcibly converting poor Hindus and that this has caused tensions.

Hindus account for 82% of India’s population, but the constitution enshrines freedom of religion as a fundamental right. Muslims make up 12% of India’s nearly 1 billion people, and Christians and Sikhs about 2% each. The remainder includes Buddhists and Jains.