ICC Note:
A church in Delhi was robbed and vandalized by two juveniles last Friday, February 10. The incident was caught on a CCTV camera installed on a school adjacent to the church. The juveniles stole 5,000 rupees and desecrated a cross and a figure of Mother Mary. Attacks on Christians and their places of worship have skyrocketed in India in recent years. Many point to the impunity enjoyed by radical groups openly advocating against Christians and other religious minorities as a cause for this increase in persecution. Will India take steps to curb this disturbing trend?  
02/14/2017 India (Times of India) – Miscreants broke into a church in outer Delhi’s Rohini and took away Rs 5,000 in cash from the donation box in the early hours of Friday. They also desecrated the Holy Cross and an idol of Mother Mary before fleeing. Police said the entire incident was captured in a CCTV camera installed in an adjoining school. Two juveniles were apprehended on the basis of CCTV footage later in the evening.
According to the police, the two accused had scaled the boundary wall of St Basil Church around 3.30am. Prior to that, they were loitering around in the area for half an hour. Father George Kurian Thomas said when he came to open the front door to prepare for the morning prayers, he found its glass-panes broken and some items lying scattered.
He claimed that there was a police picket barely 200metres from the spot, but most of time it remained unmanned. “I had read about incidents of vandalism at other churches. Even though the extent of damage in my church was not huge, the situation could have been worse,” he said. “The church has been there for the past 25 years and this is the first time that such an incident has happened. When I opened the inner door, I found many things lying on the floor. The window was shattered, the Holy Cross had been damaged and the donation box was lying empty.”
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