A hardline Hindu group has vandalized a Catholic school and assaulted a priest in southern India after a few students were questioned for attending classes wearing religious costumes instead of the school uniform.
A mob wearing saffron shirts and shawls around their neck forced their way into St. Mother Teresa English Medium School in Kannepally village in Telangana state’s Mancherial district on April 16.
They broke glass windows and flower pots while chanting “Jai Shri Ram” (hail lord Ram) and pelted stones on the statue of St. Mother Teresa at the main gates. They then staged a sit-in inside the school premises.
The mob even attacked Father Jaimon Joseph, the school manager.
“Some of them slapped and threw punches at me while others attacked me from behind,” the priest, a member of the Missionary Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament (MCBS), told UCA News on April 17.
The members of the mob accused the school management of not permitting Hindu students to wear their religious costumes, an allegation that was described as misleading.
“The school principal found a few students attending classes wearing religious dress and questioned them,” Joseph said.
They informed him that it was part of a 21-day special religious observance, the priest added.
The principal merely asked them to bring their parents to school to know more.
However, one of the students uploaded a video accusing the principal and the priest of refusing to allow students to wear religious dress.
“As the video footage circulated on social media, close to 1,000 people reached the school and vandalized it,” Joseph said.
He said that the school management has lodged a complaint with local police, but no arrests have been made yet.
Instead, the police have gone ahead and registered a case against the school management for hurting religious sentiments.
“Legal recourse will be taken to deal with the case,” Joseph added.
Telangana is ruled by a secular Congress government, which has deployed members of the Central Reserve Police Force to protect the school after the protests and threats.
Christians make up close to 2 percent of Telangana’s 35 million population, more than 80 percent of whom are Hindus.
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