No consensus seems to be in sight over the issues surrounding the Boncaud Kurishumala pilgrimage, with the State government and the Neyyattinkara Latin Catholic Diocese yet to take a step forward in this direction. After the violence that followed the ‘Way of the cross’ procession by believers on Friday, the Police Department had stepped up its vigil in the area.
Meanwhile, the Neyyattinkara Diocese has upped the ante with a pastoral letter criticising the government being read out in its 247 churches on Sunday morning.
Police, Forest Dept. accused of collusion
The letter issued by the Metropolitan of the Neyyattinkara Diocese Vincent Samuel accused the Police and the Forest Department of joining the side of the anti-social elements trying to disrupt the peace at Bonacaud. It also urged Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to shed his silence and intervene urgently in the issue.
“In the settlement meeting held on August 29, the Forest Minister had promised us that all the cases charged against the priests and believers would be withdrawn. But the government has not kept that promise. Till now, we have been on a silent protest, through memorandums, expecting justice from the government. It has not taken a favourable stand towards us. Instead, we got the impression that the government is supporting the communal forces disrupting peace,” said the letter.
Condemning the police action on the believers on Friday, the letter says that the police unleashed a merciless attack on the believers and the priests, the kind of which has been unprecedented in the State.
The Diocese is organising a protest march from the Palayam Church to the Secretariat on Tuesday at 10 a.m. The believers will later sit on a hunger strike in front of the Secretariat. On Sunday too, protest marches were organised in Neyyattinakara and other places.
The issues at Kurishumala began with the Forest Department issuing a notice to remove two concrete crosses erected here, as they were illegal constructions. Last year, in August, these crosses were found to be destroyed.
A 10-feet high wooden cross was installed at the Kurishamala following a settlement arrived at a meeting chaired by the Forest Minister on August 29, last year.
This cross was found destroyed on November 27.
The Police and the Forest Department had reported that the cross was destroyed in a lightening strike, a claim which the believers have contested.
