Goa BJP MLA demands action in cemetery vandalism

BJP legislator Nilesh Cabral on Wednesday threatened a protest sit-in if those responsible for vandalising graves and Crosses at a Catholic cemetery in his constituency were not arrested before the state assembly's monsoon session ends.

The three-week assembly session begins on July 18.

Cabral, one of the several Catholic legislators of the ruling Bharatiyta Janata Party, on Wednesday said: "These desecrations are a threat to my government."

"Police have to act quickly and arrest those responsible for it or else I will sit on a dharna outside the Curchorem police station before the assembly session ends."

"I will also be raising this issue in the assembly session. Police need to modernise in order to catch such culprits," the Curchorem legislator told IANS.

Cabral's statement comes in the wake of a series of vandal attacks on Catholic and Hindu religious symbols, including the incident on Monday when several Catholic Crosses were smashed and gravestones broken at a cemetery in south Goa's Curchorem town, 45 km from here.

The Goa Archbishop as well as Governor Mridula Sinha on Tuesday urged the state police to effectively probe the series of vandal attacks.

--IANS

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