Mobs stone 3 churches in south India

NEW DELHI—Vandals attacked three churches in southern India on Sunday, shattering windows and overturning furniture, news reports said. No casualties were immediately reported.
The attackers pelted the churches in Bangalore with stones, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. Local television channels broadcast images of broken windows and the inside of one church in disarray. Local police in Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka state, were not immediately available for comment.
The reports did not blame any particular group and no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. Mobs attacked at least 20 other churches elsewhere in Karnataka last weekend. Police blamed the Hindu radical group Bajrang Dal for those attacks and have since arrested more than 70 Bajrang Dal members, including senior leader Mahendra Kumar. Police said 34 people including five policemen were injured in that violence. The attacks in Karnataka follow weeks of Hindu-Christian violence in the eastern state of Orissa that has left at least 25 people dead. Hindu hard-liners in Orissa claim missionaries force or bribe people to convert to Christianity. The missionaries, who work mostly with poor tribes in the region, deny anyone has been pressured or paid to change their religious beliefs. Christians account for about 2.5 percent of India’s 1.1 billion population, while more than 80 percent of Indians are Hindu.
Police detained a group of Hindus in Karnataka over weekend attacks on churches, officials said on Monday, as three states ruled by Hindu nationalists struggled to stop attacks on Christians. The attacks, which have killed some 20 people over the past month, have been condemned by Pope Benedict. Roman Catholic bishops urged the European Union on Sunday to treat persecution of Christians worldwide as a humanitarian emergency.
Police said they were questioning seven Hindus in the state, where more than 20 churches have been damaged in the past week. “They are being questioned and arrests may take place,” said M.R. Pujar, an officer in Bangalore. Christians blame Hindu zealots for the attacks in Karnataka and in the states of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh as well, where Hindu nationalists either rule outright or share power. India does not have a long history of attacks on Christians, but intolerance has risen in the past two decades with a revival in Hindu nationalism.
Hindu zealots say they are determined to fight Christian missionaries they accuse of converting poor Indians. Christian groups in India have protested against these attacks, blocking roads and shouting slogans in Karnataka and elsewhere, urging the government to act against radical Hindus. “This government has failed to protect Christians from fanatical Hindu groups,” said M. Kharge, leader of the opposition Congress party in Karnataka, a view echoed by Christian leaders. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which rules in Karnataka, says the attacks on Christians were politically motivated to discredit the state government.
“Our government has taken all steps to maintain peace,” said Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. Already, more than 270 people have been arrested for the violence in Karnataka, including a local leader of a militant Hindu group. The Italian government has also expressed concern at violence in India’s Orissa state, where Hindus angry at the murder of a religious leader blamed Christian communities and attacked them. Some 20 people, mostly Christians, were killed in the ensuing violence and thousands of Christians fled their homes and are still living in jungles and government camps.

—Agencies