Some of India’s leading Christians released a joint statement condemning Tuesday’s bomb attack on worshippers and train passengers in the city of Varanasi.
Dr Joseph D’Souza, the President of the All India Christian Council, and Dr John Dayal, President of the All India Catholic Union and the Delhi United Christian Action, wrote in the statement that the innocent blood of children, women and men had been “shed in vain, as such attacks advance no political cause, nor do they serve any group of people.”
“What they do achieve is in inflicting suffering on the common people and setting back national peace and reconciliation processes,” they stated.
Tuesday's bomb blasts in Varanasi, one of the holiest pilgrimage centers for the country's majority Hindus, killed 15 and wounded dozens of people barely a week before Holi, the Hindu festival of colors.
According to Reuters, the blasts also sparked fears of sectarian violence as some police officers suspected the attack to be the work of Islamist militants fighting against Indian rule in disputed Kashmir.
“Such violence,” the recent Christian statement read, “serves the purpose of fundamentalist and religious extremists who thrive on exacerbating real and imagined divides and grievances which further their pernicious political and social agendas.”
“They want national attention and energies diverted from development, from the fight against poverty and hunger and from the long struggle of the Dalits for human dignity,” the religious leaders stated.
“It is for the governments of the state and the centre to ensure the safety of the people,” they said, adding that the Christian leadership was calling on all “right-thinking” citizens to “ensure the continuance of peace and stability, and to ensure that religious and political extremism is told in no uncertain terms that it has no place in a modern, democratic, secular and republican India.”
“Our hearts go out to the survivors who are in hospital in critical condition, and to the relatives of the dead,” the Christian heads wrote in conclusion. “We stand in sympathy and solidarity with the victims of such acts of terrorism.”
Daniel Blake in London contributed to this report.
Joseph Alvarez and Daniel Blake
Christian Today Correspondents