Delhi Christian School Vandalized, PM Intervenes Finally

Christians who staged a peaceful protest against five church attacks in the past two months were arrested by the police on Thursday, February 5, 2015. Edwin Fernandes

In a sixth of an attack on Christian establishment in three months, the Holy Child Auxiliam School in South Delhi's Vasant Vihar was vandalized in the early hours of Friday, prompting the Prime Minister to intervene finally.

Unknown people broke into the school, they damaged the closed-circuit television (CCTv), ransacked parts of the building and had stolen some money as well. Some reports indicated that the culprits wore masks and it is difficult to identify them.

Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, an alumni of this school visited the school later the day and inspected the damages. And had condemned the attack on the school.

Chief Minister-designate Arvind Kejriwal also had condemned the attack on the school. "I strongly condemn the attack on Holy Child Auxilium school. These kinds of acts will not be tolerated," Mr. Kejriwal tweeted.

Later the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi summoned Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi and asked him to take necessary actions on a series of attacks on Christian establishments.

Mr. Bassi said, "I was summoned by the Prime Minister, who asked me to enquire into the Vasant Vihar school incident. He felt anguished about the recent attacks on places of worship of the Christian community."

Mr. Bassi also briefed Mr. Modi on the progress made in cases of previous attacks on Christian institutions in Delhi.

Christians who came out in large number last week in protest of a series of attacks on the Church in the national capital were surprised that Prime Minister had not condemn until the fifth attack which happened on February 2 and had demanded a a probe by a Special Team Investigation (SIT), they felt that these are 'systematic and clear patterns on the attacks'.

Union Home Secretary L.C. Goyal had summoned the Police Commissioner and plans to closely monitor the progress in the investigation to be led by a single team. "We need to know if there is a pattern and what measures have been taken so far," a top ministry official said.

According to the data released by the Delhi Police, at least nine churches in the national capital have been attacked between 2012 and 2014.