Tension near church
Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: A group of people claiming to be activists of the Bajrang Dal raised communal slogans and pelted stones at vehicles parked in front of two churches at Dilshad Garden in East Delhi during Sunday prayer services.
The incident happened at about 10-45 a.m. near St. Sebastian’s/St. Francis Church and St. Stephen’s Church at Tahirpur when a gang of over a dozen people gathered in front of the churches. They raised slogans for over 10 minutes, throwing the prayer service into complete disarray.
“The troublemakers’ presence created tension on the road even as church-goers were participating in prayer services. Later they fled from the scene only to return after a few minutes and started throwing stones at the parked vehicles,” said Father Antony William.
At the intervention of local MLA Vir Singh Dhingan, the police later rounded up two of the miscreants when they returned to the scene.
Later in the evening, a protest meeting was held near the church in which the speakers expressed apprehension over the security of the churches and its members. They urged the authorities to take precautionary measures to see that such incidents do not occur in the future.
The Hindu, 25 February, 2008
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