ICC Note:

Good Friday celebrations were prevented for hundreds of Christians in India’s Tamil Nadu state by police. According to local reports, the police prevented the Christians from climbing a hill they were using to make the Way of the Cross. For years, these Christians had access to this hill and it had become customary for them to use the hill each Good Friday. Instances of persecution and religious intolerance in India continue to grow. According to the Pew Research Center, India ranks 4th, just behind Iraq, in countries with the most religious hostility. 

04/20/2017 India (Asia News) – On Good Friday the police of Tamil Nadu prevented hundreds of Dalit Christians from climbing a hill to make the Way of the Cross.

The episode took place in Thirukazhukundram, famous for a temple dedicated to the god Shiva. Here, on April 14, officers climbed on the altar and interrupted the celebrations. V.P. Jeyaseelan, the Chengalpet official, reports that the area had been declared “inaccessible” and that the incident was due to a long-running dispute between the residents and those of Sogandi Alagusamudram.

Speaking to Asia News, Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), condemned the “sacrilegious” attack saying, “The sacrilegious behavior of radicals is unacceptable. We ask the National Commission for Human Rights to open a case against the police and the authorities have remained silent spectators of this reprehensible hate attack that wounded the feelings of hundreds of Christians.”

The Jeyaseelan official explained that “Christian Sogandi Dalits had received permission to celebrate on the slopes of the mountain, but then the situation got worse when they have taken up the crosses and tried to climb the hill.”

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