Church officials in India want police to conduct a thorough probe into an attack on a Catholic Church in Assam, saying it could be part of a plan to create religious-based divisions in the north-eastern state ahead of Christmas.

Parishioners of St Thomas Church in Chapatoli, in Dibrugarh Diocese said they found their church vandalized on Dec. 15.

The church’s crucifix, stations of the cross and prayer books were allegedly destroyed, while a Marian statue was removed from its plinth in a grotto and thrown to the floor. “Somebody did this to destroy a harmonious atmosphere in this area,” parish priest Fr Cyprian Lakra told.

Nothing like this has happened before at the 88-year-old church, he added.

Despite police arresting two “drunk” men in connection with the vandalism, church officials believe those arrested were scapegoats and that the motive behind the attack was more sinister.

The arrests “appear to be a knee jerk reaction rather than attempt to identify the original culprits,” said Father G. P. Amalraj, deputy secretary of regional bishops’ council.

Bishop Joseph Aind of Dibrugarh demanded “a high-level inquiry” and said “certain forces with ulterior motives were seeking to sow seeds of hatred” among peace loving people living in the tea garden areas of the state.

Other Christian leaders like him suspect a political motive behind the attack with similar incidents being reported since a pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led coalition came to power in the state in 2016.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Dec. 19 said that he would stand by the Christian community till the Dalit Christians are accorded the status of Scheduled Castes.

Speaking at the Christmas celebrations held at Lutheran English Medium School here, Mr Naidu said that Dalit Christians have lost many opportunities as they do not have reservations.

Earlier, the Chief Minister cut the cake in the presence of several church heads. “Our children are able to speak fluent English due to the Christian missionary schools. Missionaries started hospitals and schools paving the way for development of society,” Mr Naidu said.

The CM said that he would allot 6 crore for completing Christian Bhavan in the city.

Earlier, Mr Naidu laid the foundation Stone for Mother and Child Hospital at Government General Hospital which would be built at a cost of 65 crore.

Odisha Chief Minister Navin Patnaik joined a Christmas program in Bhubaneswar organized by the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar on December 21, 2018.

“This is the fourth time he is joining the programs organized by the Archdiocese of Cuttak-Bhubaneswar. Three times for Christmas and once to name a road after Mother Teresa,” said Benjamin Simon a Catholic leader, the Master of Ceremony on the December 21 program.

Patnaik, fourth times Odisha Chief Minister, attended the Christmas program at St Vincent’s Pro-Cathedral in Bhubaneswar. Around 2,500 people, including members of state legislative assembly, officials and Christians attended the program.

“Thank you, A Merry Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year,” Patnaik wished the gathering in Odia language.

Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar in his welcome address said, “Our joy has not doubled but it has multiplied with your presence. Glory to God in the highest and peace to people of good will on earth.”

The Divine Word prelate thanked the Chief Minister for allotting 1-acre land for a burial ground in Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Odisha where some 20,000 Christians of various denominations live.

Beer bottles were smashed on the heads of churchgoers who formed a ring around the rest of the congregation: to protect them from an armed group that had barged into a church in Maharashtra two days before Christmas, some of the victims and the pastor said on Dec. 24.

The 40-strong congregation attending the Sunday service was attacked with swords, iron rods and the bottles at the New Life Fellowship Church in Kolhapur’s Kowad, around 474km from Mumbai and close to the Karnataka border.

Eight of the injured were admitted to two hospitals in Karnataka’s Belgaum, around 20km away from the attack site. Four are still admitted in the intensive care unit. Sachin Baghde, 20, had a clot removed from his brain.

The prayer service at the church had started around 11am, and the attack took place some 45 minutes later.

“Around 15-20 people came on motorbikes, armed with iron rods and swords. They hurled stones at the church building and then barged inside,” said Arjun Muttekar, one of the victims.

“The group of armed men accused us of holding conversion programmes before starting the assault,” said Anil Bhonsale, the pastor. The assault went on for some 30 minutes, following which police arrived and the attackers fled.

Catholic and other church leaders have joined journalists and rights’ groups in demanding a detailed investigation into the murder of an investigative reporter – a tribal Christian – in India’s eastern Jharkhand State.

The body of Amit Topno, who extensively covered a local tribal resistance movement, was found under a bridge near the state’s capital, Ranchi, on Dec. 9. An autopsy found that he had been shot through the head, media reports stated.

Investigating officer Ramesh Kumar Singh called it a murder. But police had not arrested anyone as of on Dec. 19.

“We want a free and fair investigation into his murder,” said Father Davis Solomon, a Jesuit social worker based in Ranchi.

Topno, a member of the Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church, provided exclusive television coverage of tribal oppression through his freelance video journalism, the priest said.

The Ahmedabad-based Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan has bought a 30-year-old church in Portsmouth of Virginia, United States, and plans to convert it into a Swaminarayan temple.

According to reports, the Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan has already converted eight churches across the world into Hindu temples. Five of them are in the US. The temple trust has converted churches in California, Louisville, Pennsylvania, Los Angeles and Ohio in the US. Two churches, one in London and another near Bolton in Manchester, UK have also been converted into Hindu temples.

The Portsmouth Church will be the sixth church in the US to be converted into a Hindu temple by Swaminarayan Sansthan. It is report-ed that the Swaminarayan Gadi Sansthan has also acquired a 125-year-old property in Toronto, Canada to build another temple.

Bhagwatpriyadas Swami, mahant of the Sansthan said, “It is under the guidance of our spiritual head Purushottam Priyadas Swami that the 30-year-old church was acquired to be refurbished into a Swaminarayan temple. Not many changes would be mandated in the church at Portsmouth, as it was already a spiritual place of another faith. This would be the first temple for Haribhakts in Virginia.”