Karnataka bishops to protest church attacks
By IANSThursday, February 17, 2011
BANGALORE - Bangalore Archbishop Bernard Moras will lead 17 bishops in a sit-in protest Friday and the Christian community will hold a rally and candle light vigil here Monday to protest attacks on churches in the state.
The sit-in and the candle light vigil follow a judicial commission report absolving Hindu groups of the series of attacks on churches at several places in Karnataka in September 2008.
The Christian community has rejected the report of the Justice B.K. Somashekara Commission and is demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the attacks.
Giving details of the protest, Moras told reporters here that the Christian community wanted the state government “to reject the one-sided, totally unjust and biased report”.
The protest was also to “demand that the entire series of attacks must be entrusted to the CBI for a comprehensive probe, he said.
The sit-in will be a symbolic protest lasting half-an-hour from 11 a.m. at St. Marks Cathedral campus off the Mahatma Gandhi Road in the heart of the city.
Monday evening, Christians in Bangalore city and neighbouring districts will hold the rally and prayer meeting with a candle light vigil at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral grounds, about two km away from the Mahatma Gandhi Road, Moras said.
The Somashekara Commission, in its report submitted to the government Jan 28, absolved the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the state government and Hindu groups of the attacks.
It has said the attacks, though pre-planned in some cases, were carried out by “misguided elements.
