Indian Christians Reject Report

Christian leaders rejected a report that cleared Hindu fundamentalists of responsibility for a series of attacks on Christian targets in southern Karnataka State in India and demanded that the federal government conduct its own inquiry. “The Christian community is deeply saddened by this report,” Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore, president of the Karnataka Catholic Bishops Council, said during a news conference on Feb. 5. Attacks on three dozen churches and other Christian targets across the state in September 2008 were investigated. The commission absolved the state government, led by members of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, police and Hindu fundamentalist groups of the attacks despite contrary testimony from dozens of Christians. “We cooperated with the inquiry in the hope that justice will be done,” Archbishop Moras said. “Shockingly, the report is biased against Christians, and it absolves the culprits.”