Christian school ransacked in Delhi

An unidentified group Friday ransacked a Christian school here, police said.

Staff members of the Holy Child Auxilium school in south Delhi's Vasant Vihar told police that a few CCTV cameras installed in the school premises were damaged and the office of the principal was ransacked.

"Some CCTV cameras were damaged and the office of the school principal was ransacked by some unidentified people early Friday," Delhi Catholic Archdiocese spokesperson Father Savarimuthu Sankar told IANS.

Sankar said school children have been sent back to their homes after the incident came to light.

Leaders of the Christian community said some members of a group have been intentionally targeting the community and this is the sixth such attack within 11 weeks.

Sankar claimed that the attack sent a clear message that a group is trying to "fill fear" among the Christian community.

He said that five churches have been attacked since December 2014 and this is the sixth such attack.

"We see a clear pattern in all the attacks. Earlier we thought that these attacks have a connection with the Delhi polls," said Sankar.

"Now it has been clear that this is a handiwork of some fundamentalist group whose motive is to fill fear among the Christian community," Sankar said.

Father Mahew Koyickal told IANS: "The intention of the attackers is to unnerve the Christian community. Since December, five churches have been targeted on regular interval. We demanded that the case should be investigated from all angles," he said.

Few items and a DVD player have also been stolen from St. Alphonsa's church in south Delhi's Vasant Kunj Feb 2.

Three people have been arrested Jan 15, a day after a church in west Delhi was vandalised.

Earlier in January, a minor fire was reported from a church in Rohini, west Delhi. The Christmas crib outside was charred.

Some unidentified people threw stones at Our Lady of Fatima Forane Church at Jasola in south Delhi in December and broke window panes.

St. Sebastian's Church, a Catholic church at Dilshad Garden in east Delhi, was torched in December. Police confirmed it was a case of arson.

According to the 2011 Census report, the number of Christians was around 130,000 in Delhi, home to about 17 million. The Christian population in India is 24 million among the total of 1.2 billion.