Six persons have been arrested in connection with the attack on a cathedral premises and a school in Jabalpur on Friday night allegedly by members of two extremist groups, Bajrang Dal and Dharam Sena.
The arrested have been booked under several sections of IPC including 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 294 (punishment for obscene acts or words in public), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (mischief) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
The arrested have been identified as Dharam Sena leader, Yogesh Agrawal and his associates, Nitin Rajak, Prateek Pyasi, Anurag Choukse, Abhishek Choukse and Sharad Rao.
Apart from vandalizing the church and a school premises, the activists of the two extremist groups reportedly also assaulted and threatened some members of the Christian community accusing them of carrying out a religious conversion programme under the guise of a conference.
The trouble makers, who had come on foot and motorcycles also threw flower pots kept outside the residence of a priest on two cars parked there damaging them extensively.
A look at other church attacks:
A church in West Delhi's Vikaspuri allegedly vandalised by two men. Church authorities claim that the attack was carried out to stoke communal tension. > Read more
Crib kept on the premises of the Church of Resurrection in Rohini was found charred. Church officials claim someone threw a burning substance on the crib to set it on fire > Read more
Stones were thrown at a Syro-Malabar Catholic Church at Jasola in Okhla when mass was being celebrated around 6.45 p.m. > Read more
Interiors of St. Sebastian’s Church, Dilshad Garden, were destroyed in a fire. Church authorities alleged that it “could be the work of some miscreants”. > Read more