‘Vested interests trying to divide society on religious lines’

Religious leaders at a roundtable here on Thursday gave a call to political parties not to use attacks on places of worships as a tool to polarise the society to garner votes.

At the roundtable organised by the CPI district unit, Moulana Jeelan Basha, former Grandhalaya chairman Salar Basha, Bishop Samuel, Indian Churches Association leader Anand, and purohits Venugopal Sastry and Shyamrao took a serious note of the recent incidents of desecrations of idols at some temples and attacks on churches.

They appealed to the State government to bring to book all the culprits at the earliest.

“People in Andhra Pradesh have always lived with religious harmony in the most secular way and will continue to do so. Some vested interests are trying to create a divide in the society, which is not acceptable,” they said.

CPI district secretary D. Jagadeesh and joint secretary Jaffer expressed concern over use of the incidents of idol desecrations on the social media to ‘create unrest in the society’. They demanded action against the culprits and better security at all religious places.