Bangalore, India, 23 September (ENI)--Church leaders in charge of the tiny Christian community in India's troubled Kashmir region have thanked the government for protecting them during recent violent protests. More than 25 protesters were killed and many more injured when security forces fired on mobs venting their anger on scattered Christian centres in Kashmir following reports that there had been a desecration of the Quran in the United States.

"We are thankful to the government for protecting our people and centres with determination," said Bishop Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy, who heads the Church of North India's Amritsar diocese that covers Kashmir. Bishop Samantaroy spoke to ENInews on 21 September after returning from a meeting in Kashmir with leaders and the police chief from India's northernmost states of Jammu and Kashmir, where he thanked them for protecting the Christian community.

During the trip, the CNI prelate also visited the church's Tyndale Biscoe School at Tangmarg, 45 kilometres (27 miles) from the state capital of Srinagar. The school had been razed to the ground by protesters on 13 September along with the Roman Catholic Good Shepherd High School in Pulwama. The attacks on Christian targets followed reports by an Iranian television channel that there had been a desecration of the Quran in the United States by some protesters to mark the anniversary of the 9 September 2001 attacks there that killed thousands of people.

Catholic Bishop Peter Celestine Elampassery of Jammu Srinagar diocese told ENInews that though the protests were widespread, no Christians were harmed "due to the timely and stern action" by the security forces. Eighteen protesters were killed on 13 September after police opened fire in various parts of Kashmir when mobs tried to storm churches, Christian schools and hospitals.

"Perhaps, vested interests were trying to capitalise on the Quran desecration for their political gain. But the people realised the government would not tolerate attacks on the minority Christians," explained Bishop Elampassery. The Indian side of Kashmir, which traverses into Pakistan, has been in turmoil in recent months following a rise in street protests by Muslims demanding cessation from predominantly Hindu India. They want to be united with Muslim-majority Pakistan, which controls other part of Kashmir.

About 5000 Christians live among the Muslim majority in the Kashmir valley, which is nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas. [398 words]

[COURTESY TO ENI AS SOURCE]

Bangalore, 14 September (ENI)--Churches in India are asking for support after Christian institutions became the target of violent protests linked to the reported desecration of a copy of the Quran in the United States. At least 16 people were killed and more than 60 injured in clashes on 13 September with security personnel in India-ruled Kashmir.

Most of those people were killed after police opened fire to quell violent mobs, S. S. Kapur, the chief secretary, or highest official, of Jammu and Kashmir state, told media. Kapur said the crowds had come out on to the streets after a "foreign" television station had reported that a copy of the Quran had been desecrated in the United States. Tension had been rising in Muslim-majority Kashmir after the announcement by the Rev. Terry Jones, pastor of a tiny church in Florida, of plans to burn copies of the Quran on 11 September, the ninth anniversary of the terror attacks in the United States.

Jones abandoned the plans after an outpouring of criticism reaching to U.S. President Barack Obama. The latest violence was sparked by a report on an Iranian television station that allegedly showed a protester in the United States tearing pages out of a Quran. Bishop Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy of the Amritsar diocese of the Church of North India told ENInews that two protesters were killed after security forces opened fire at the gate of the CNI hospital at Anantnag when a mob tried to storm it.

On 13 September, the Church of North India's Tyndale Biscoe School near the tourist resort of Gulmarg in the Kashmir valley was torched. Later the Roman Catholic Good Shepherd high school at Pulwama was also set on fire. The previous day, police had to enforce a curfew in Malerkotla town in India's northern Punjab state which neighbours Kashmir, after a mob said to be made up of Muslims set fire to a church belonging to the CNI.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, the president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, said his church is "deeply saddened by the disrespectful act towards the holy Quran" in the United States. "I am also concerned about the violent incidents that have taken place in the country," Gracias told ENInews 14 September. "Our churches and schools are attacked for no fault of ours," said Alwan Masih, general secretary of the CNI synod, in a 14 September statement. "We request the members of all religious faiths to stand with us to condemn this fundamentalist attack on our churches and institutions by individuals who do not represent any faith community in the world."

Masih also noted that the CNI had denounced the plans of the Florida church to burn the Qurans as "the most cowardly act any one individual or an organization can think of". Deploring the subsequent report of a Quran profanation in the United States and the violent protests in India, the All India Christian Council said there should be "no place in a civilized country for … desecration and wilful hurting of religious sentiments of people". [525 words]

[COURTESY TO ENI AS SOURCE]