New Delhi: A Christian group called the United Christian Forum (UCF) has alleged that police are “spying” on churches in Karbi Anglong, Assam and has appealed to the district administration for intervention.
As per a report published in The Times of India, the organisation has submitted a memorandum to the district commissioner on Tuesday, May 14 complaining of police personnel “barging into churches in Diphu and under the Dokmuka police station area, taking photographs and asking queries, without prior intimation to church authorities”. Further, the UCF added that the action of the police was “causing panic among the believers”.
In the memorandum, the Christian group has urged the DC to “to act and immediately call off this exercise in interest of public peace,” as per TOI. They have also expressed concern over the “unprecedented collection of data of churches at random, and its adherents, by persons in uniform since last week”.
Underlining the reasons behind the “security review”, the police suggested that it was being done on the directions of the police headquarters since there had been complaints of intimidation of Christian institutions and educational trusts in several parts of the state.
“Given the directive from the DGP’s office, personnel from respective police stations are visiting the churches and talking to the office-bearers there. Police have gone there to only review the safety and security of the institutes through a survey,” Karbi Anglong SP Sanjib Saikia told TOI.
The TOI report noted that the Assam Catholic Educational Trust had recently written to DGP G.P. Singh requesting him to ensure the safety of missionary educational institutes in the state after a right-wing Hindu group allegedly threatened and asked the institutes to remove statues of Jesus and Mary as well as crucifix from their campuses. Moreover, the group allegedly asked priests and nuns to not wear their sacred robes.
This story was originally published in thewire.in.