Church appeals for peace as violence strikes northeast India

Kohima – With sectarian violence and insurgency raising their ugly heads in the northeast region of India that has claimed hundreds of lives, the local Church has sounded the alarm and has appealed for peace in the troubled region.

Recently, some 2,500 people marched in a Church–supported peace rally through the streets of Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland state. This rally was in response to the recent incident when four bombs exploded almost simultaneously at the railway station and market areas in the town. Official reports claimed that around 28 people were killed and many more wounded, including schoolchildren, but Church sources insisted the blasts killed at least 40 people.

Father Chacko Karinthayil of Kohima diocese said that the rally was organized to show "concern and solidarity with the victims of the bomb blasts and to awaken public awareness of antisocial elements in society."

The region is home to several separatist groups, but none have taken responsibility for the blasts.

Diocese covers all of Nagaland. About 90 percent of the state's nearly 2 million people are Christians, the majority of them Baptists.

Kohima diocesan procurator Father John S. Kavas, who lives near the Dimapur railway station, described the scene there as "heart–rending," with "pieces of flesh hanging" from the iron skeleton of the roof.

He disclosed that the wounded included two Apostolic Carmel nuns and children from a Catholic school who had come to the city, for the first time, on an excursion. Among those killed was a Catholic woman whose husband was hospitalized with serious burns.

Violence has also hit neighboring Assam state, where some 25 people including paramilitary personnel reportedly were killed in at least nine separate incidents on the same day as the Dimapur blasts. Recently, a bomb in a market in Assam's Sunitpur district wounded at least 20 people.

The Northeast Regional Conference, comprising Catholic bishops, priests and Religious in the region, has appealed for peace.

During its Oct. 4–7 meeting at Shillong, capital of Meghalaya, another Christian–majority state in the region, the conference asked "those who are responsible" to "desist from further attacks on the basic human right to life."

The appeal asserted, "There is nothing that cannot be solved through dialogue and peaceful negotiations." Signed by conference president Archbishop Joseph Mittathany of Imphal, it offers condolences to the bereaved families as well as prayers that "peace become a reality in our region."

Salesian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati, Assam, said that central and local authorities' "lack of understanding of the problems" of the region "could be the reason for this spurt of bomb blasts and violence." Demands for more socioeconomic freedom and self–determination go back five decades in several areas in the tribal–dominated region. However, whenever the tribals have raised their demands, they have been brutally silenced by the armies and paramilitaries under instructions of the central and state governments. This has created further misunderstanding and rift between the local people and the government.

Archbishop Menamparampil expressed the Church's sorrow over recent events. He urged that the causes of the conflict be examined and a commitment made to solve those problems and hoped that dialogues will be entered into by the concerned parties so that all disputes can be solved amicably.