SIMDEGA (UCAN): Christian leaders in eastern India claim that the increasing incidents of robbery and assaults on priests in the region are systematic and part of a larger agenda to weaken the Church’s mission.
In the latest incident, five masked men broke into the vicarage of Samsera parish in the Diocese of Simdega, in Jharkhand, during the early hours of June 9.
The robbers brutally assaulted the parish priest, Father Ignatius Toppo, and his assistant, Father Roshan Soreng, before stealing an undisclosed amount of money from a safe, according to Father Agustin Dungdung, the principal of the Church-run school in the parish.
Father Dungdung, who resides in the parish house, was also attacked.
In the past two years, “churches in eastern Indian states have increasingly faced such attacks,” Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Daltonganj observed on June 12.
The robberies follow a pattern, and the attacks on the priests are almost identical. The robbers come at midnight, assault the priest, and steal cash and other valuables, Bishop Mascarenhas said.
There have been at least three attacks on priests in Jharkhand and Odisha over the past two months, the bishop said.
Robberies and attacks on priests are all pre-planned and there is a hidden agenda to which the ruling parties are working
Bishop Mascarenhas
“Robberies and attacks on priests are all pre-planned and there is a hidden agenda to which the ruling parties are working,” he said, asking, “If not, why are such cases happening only in states where the BJP is dominant?”
The bishop was referring to the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, which governs Odisha and is politically influential in Jharkhand.
He said Hindu groups that support the BJP “can’t digest the work the missionaries are doing among the poor, downtrodden and the uplifting of the tribals. They work to stop these activities, considering them actions to convert people,” he said.
In the past two years, especially since the BJP came to power in Odisha in June 2024, there have been at least eight robbery attempts, according to Father Ajay Kumar Singh, a social worker from Odisha state.
“If the robbers come only to rob, then why do they desecrate the Holy Communion? That shows that the intention of the attack is something else,” said Father Singh, a priest from the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, based in the state capital, Bhubaneswar.
One 90-year-old priest, who posed no threat to the robbers, was attacked and seriously injured in the incident on May 23 when nine armed men broke into a house of Discalced Carmelites
“What is more surprising is that in almost all the cases, the police are clueless and have not taken any concrete steps to find the robbers. It shows that their higher-ups do not want the cases to be solved,” he said.
For example, months after a robbery in the Diocese of Sambalpur, police hve yet to identify or arrest the robbers.
In that incident on March 21, robbers ransacked and desecrated the church in Titilagarh and stole the tabernacle containing the Holy Eucharist and money from the donation box.
Pointing to another case in Sambalpur, Father Madan Sual Singh said priests are “brutally attacked even if they are not resisting the robbery.”
One 90-year-old priest, who posed no threat to the robbers, was attacked and seriously injured in the incident on May 23 when nine armed men broke into a house of Discalced Carmelites.
Father Sual Singh said robbers target priests’ parishes even though these states have houses of other religions and wealthy individuals.
Lay leader, Praveen Kachhap, said the “Christian community in the area is hurt and angry by these repeated incidents.”
Kachhap, the state general secretary of the All India Christian Minority Front in Jharkhand, said the state government has failed to control criminals and has demanded immediate police action against these crimes.
