By UCAN

Protestant leaders in India assert that the recently issued Vatican document identifying the Catholic Church as the Church Christ established is a threat to ecumenism.

The Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) on July 10 released Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine on the Church to clarify certain Vatican Council II teachings.

Pope Benedict XVI approved the document that Cardinal William Levada, CDF's prefect, signed. The text attempts to clarify "the authentic meaning of some ecclesiological expressions" the magisterium uses that could be misunderstood.


According to the text, Protestant denominations do not enjoy apostolic succession in the sacrament of orders, "and are, therefore, deprived of a constitutive element of the Church."

Reverend Enos Das Pradhan, general secretary of the Church of North India (CNI), expressed dismay over the Vatican position. He told UCA News on July 26 that the document has "shattered" years of efforts to promote ecumenism. "The Catholic Church cannot ascertain supremacy over the other Churches," he said.

He added: "We have to realize the whole Church, with all its denominations, is equal in faith. We all believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."

He also said he wants the various Churches to work together for "greater ecumenism." The concept of a unified Church is "never possible," he asserted.

Reverend Abraham Stephen similarly expressed unhappiness about the document. "Christ has not established any Church and he has been always against institutional structures," the professor of Religion at Bangalore's United Theological College (UTC) told UCA News.

Bangalore, 2,060 kilometers south of New Delhi, is the capital of Karnataka state. The city is also known as "the Vatican of the East" because it houses several Christian Churches and their various offices.

Reverend Stephen explained that "Church" refers to a community of faith in Christ, but the CDF text uses the term to refer to a hierarchical institution.

"Jesus was always against hierarchy and power, and therefore, there is no meaning to apostolic succession," he said. Such documents, Reverend Stephen pointed out, create "confusion among Churches" about the relevance of ecumenism that had reached "great heights under the previous pope."

In India, he noted, Hindu fundamentalist groups have already taken advantage of divisions among Christian denominations, and this "gap" widens further with the Catholic Church's stand.

Reverend O. V. Jathanna, the principal of UTC, said the Vatican document is disappointing and discouraging. "We expected the Catholic Church to go forward, a trend the previous pope initiated, but unfortunately it is going backward to pre-Vatican II," lamented the Church of South India theologian.

He said Churches should accept "the supremacy and fatherhood of Jesus," not of any Church or establishment, and "when we are facing lots of external threats, there is a great necessity for ecumenism and inter-Church relations."

Reverend Jathanna further remarked that the pope has again shown he is "ultra-conservative" and "non-compromising" in his attitudes.

Reverend M.J. Joseph, former director of the Bangalore-based Ecumenical Christian Centre, told UCA News the Vatican document disappointed him, too.

"It is like giving a direct blow to the ecumenical movements in India, which will have negative impacts," said the member of Mar Thoma Church, a reformed Orthodox group. Ecumenism is "not inviting the other to accept one's supremacy but accepting each other as members in the union of Christian faith," he said.

S. Daud of the Evangelical Church of India says he wants the Vatican to promote Christianity instead of dividing Churches and causing confusion among ordinary Indians who know little about Christian denominations.

Daud also told UCA News the document will give the impression that a caste system exists within Christianity. Based in Bhopal, capital of Madhya Pradesh state, 745 kilometers south of New Delhi, he is president of the Madhya Pradesh chapter of the All India Christian Council.


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A statue of St Josemaría Escrivá was blessed and installed in the Sacred Heart Cathedral in New Delhi (India) on Tuesday 26 June, the feast day of the saint.

By Santificarnos.com

Archbishop Vincent Concessao was the main celebrant of the evening Mass in honor of the Founder of Opus Dei.

Quoting Pope Pius X in his homily, Archbishop Concessao told those assembled that the most pressing need of the Church is that we need more saints – and that this was the central message of St. Josemaría: all of the baptized are called to be saints – “not only saints in niches,” said the Archbishop, “but sweating in the factories, working in the offices…” carrying out professions of all kinds, that shouldn’t be seen as obstacles to holiness but rather as a means to achieve it.

“No matter what your work is,” the Archbishop said, “you are serving other people, and if you do it for love, aware of God’s plans for you, you can identify yourself with Christ in your work and draw closer to God.”

All of the baptized are called to be saints “not only saints in niches but sweating in the factories, working in the offices…”, said the Archbishop.Mr. Bernard Alick, an Indian artist painted the 1.1 meter resin statue which was made according to the original sculpture by Baldessari. Followed by the Archbishop and the other five concelebrants, Mr Alick was proud to be among those carrying the new statue in procession at the end of the Mass from the presbytery to the Baptistery Chapel of the Cathedral, where the statue has been placed.

Some participants placed a bouquet of flowers by the statue just after the installation ceremony. Leena Khalko, a housekeeper from Jharkhand, said she plans to bring fresh flowers regularly and address her petitions to God, through the intercession of St. Josemaría, at the Cathedral of Delhi.

Josemaría Escrivá died in 1975. He met some of the first Indian men and women who joined Opus Dei. Full of admiration and love for India when he was alive, St. Josemaría, ‘the saint of the ordinary’ (in words of Pope John Paul II) had this country with its people very much in his heart and prayers.

Certainly now he keeps doing the same from Heaven, always ready to intercede before God for those who ask him for help.

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By Saji Thomas

Church leaders and others in Madhya Pradesh state believe a "political witch hunt" is going on as attacks on Christians continue unabated.

The government wants to polarize voters on the basis of religion as a state assembly election approach, alleges Father Anand Muttungal, spokesperson of the Catholic Church in Madhya Pradesh.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people's party) formed the current government in the central state in December 2003, with a five-year term. The party is seen as the political arm of right-wing Hindu groups that want to create a theocratic state in India.

Father Muttungal cited two recent anti-Christian incidents as part of a "political witch hunt," a view shared by Naresh Saraf, a member of the main opposition Congress party.

Most recently, suspected Hindu militants harassed a Protestant pastor in July.

In the other incident, on June 30, some BJP activists staged a sit-in before the office of the collector of Bhopal district, demanding action against a Catholic school for allegedly denigrating an ancient mystic poet.

Bhopal, some 745 kilometers south of New Delhi, is the state capital.

Pastor Amos Singh of the Evangelical Church of India narrated to UCA News on July 5 his experience with Hindu radicals. The 50-year-old pastor said they asked him the previous day to vacate his house, a tin shed that he uses also for prayer services, in Balaghat, 350 kilometers southeast of Bhopal.

Earlier, on July 2, other Hindu militants attacked him at Rewa, 450 kilometers north of Balaghat, where he had gone to guide a two-day retreat for 150 people. Five people forced their way into the room in a church compound where he was sleeping. They threw him on the floor and shouted, "Beat him!" and "Set him on fire!"

When the pastor's wife tried to intervene, the intruders held her at knifepoint. "They then began to beat me up with iron rods and lathi (batons)," the pastor added. The assailants also attacked other people, and one woman suffered head injuries.

Pastor Singh said the attackers belong to some Hindu groups that oppose Christians. Militants had tried to stop the retreat on July 1, the first day, but the Christians conducted it with police help.

"I am happy to suffer in the name of Christ," the pastor said, adding that the attacks served to indicate the Church's revival in the state.

In the June incident, the protesting BJP workers asked the collector to de-recognize St. Thomas Senior Secondary School in Bhopal.

They complained that the school magazine had published on March 1 a joke about Kabir Das (1398-1518), a prominent personality in the history of Indian mysticism. The local media portrayed the action as dishonoring the poet, who is revered in India for teaching loving devotion to the divine and an egalitarian society.

Principal Father Thomas Mancharuvil told UCA News his school apologized for the incident and removed the teacher who was in charge of the magazine soon after the reports appeared. The school had printed 960 copies of the magazine. It managed to recover 930 of them and removed the page containing the joke.

The school sent a note of regret to the state school education board and also published it in the local press. "The issue was closed there," Father Mancharuvil maintained.

The priest described the continuing agitation as "very unfortunate" and blamed parents of some failed students. The parents had pressed the school to issue transfer certificates falsely stating that the children had passed their exam, but the school refused.

Condemning these incidents, Saraf told UCA News the state government supported the anti-Christian groups as part of its "vote-bank politics."

Saurabh, a Jain businessman, agreed the attacks are aimed at creating a Hindu vote bank. He warned such moves would spread hatred among various religious communities.

Pastor Anil Martin, also of the Evangelical Church of India, predicted Madhya Pradesh would witness more such incidents as the election approaches. He said Church workers should take "maximum care" while carrying out their duties.

UCAN
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Some Hindus joined a Christian rally rally to protest a recent attack on five Catholics, including a priest, while other Hindus organized a rally to justify the attack.

Both rallies were held on July 2 but at different places in Karnataka state. The Christian rally was held in Mangalore, a port town 2,290 kilometers south of New Delhi. The Hindu rally was at Kundapura, some 80 kilometers north of Mangalore, where Carmelite Father Sylvester Pereira and the four others were attacked on June 25.

Condemning the attack, Yogesh Bhat, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people's party), told the Mangalore rally he would "ensure justice for Christians."

The Hindu leader blamed criminals for the attack and said his party, widely seen as the political organ of Hindu nationalists, was not involved. He said he has visited Kundapura's Infant Jesus Shrine, which Father Pereira manages. "I know the noble services rendered by the Christians," he asserted.

The protesters accused the police of negligence and bias in handling the case.

Suspected Bajrang Dal (party of the strong and stout) activists attacked Father Pereira, 36, two seminarians, their cook and a neighbor inside a hospital in Kundapura.

The attackers forcibly took the Catholics to the local police station and filed a case against them for "forcible conversion." The police then detained the Christians in the station for three hours.

M.G. Hegde, a Hindu social worker who attended the Mangalore rally, said nobody has "a right to attack Christians and call it an act of protecting Hinduism." According to him, "99 percent of people" of all religions "do not propagate violence and they condemn the attack on the priest." He urged the administration to view the attackers as mere criminals and punish them.

Hegde regretted the country now lacks leaders who can speak on national integrity. What it has instead are party leaders who propagate violence, hatred and issues for their survival, he said.

The Hindu rally in Kundapura reportedly justified the attack on Catholics, with speakers describing such actions as necessary to protect Hinduism from conversion-minded Christians. Some urged Hindus to follow Dara Singh as a role model in punishing missioners.

Dara Singh was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to death as the leader of a mob that burned to death Australian missioner Graham Stuart Staines and his two minor sons in Orissa, eastern India, in 1999. In 2005 the Orissa High Court commuted his death sentence to life in prison.

Krishnaprasad Adyantaya, one of the speakers, reportedly said Kundapura has several Dara Singhs ready to foil all attempts to convert Hindus. Adyantaya is a managing trustee of a local temple. He alleged that Christian social services and institutions are means of mass conversion. He commended Ramanna Shetty, a Bajrang Dal activist identified as one of Father Pereira's attackers.

The Hindu groups' call for a strike in Kundapura town reportedly produced a poor response.

The Christian rally made no anti-Hindu remarks but stressed communal harmony and national integration. "It was more an interreligious celebration rather than a protest rally," remarked Neri Wilfred Pinto, a Catholic layman at the Mangalore program.

Roshan Castelino, president of Konkani Yuva Awaz (voice of the Konkani youth), a Catholic youth movement that organized the Mangalore program, said leaders they invited from the BJP and other Hindu groups responded "positively."

The rally also prepared a memorandum to present to the state chief minister demanding a separate law to deal with atrocities against religious minorities. The memorandum also complained that the police resorted to "delay tactics" in handling the Kundapura case and showed a "soft" spot for the attackers.

Source: UCA News
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By Anto Akkara

Two months after being brutally assaulted by Hindu fundamentalists in the presence of television crews, Pastor Walter Masih says he is determined to continue his ministry.

Although he still needs a walking stick to move around, this did not deter the pastor from travelling more than 300 kilometres from Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan state, to New Delhi, where he took part in a rally on 29 May to protest about a spate of attacks on Christians in recent months. Masih also attended a national convention in Bangalore in late June of Christians who say they have been persecuted.


"I am not scared. I will continue the work I have been doing for the last 17 years," 47-year-old Pentecostal pastor Masih told Ecumenical News International.

Indian television news channels broadcast the 29 April assault on the pastor after the assailants took film crews to the scene before the attack began. The assailants were shown putting on masks before they assaulted the pastor. Afterwards, images of his profusely bleeding face were screened.

"Two young men came to me after the Sunday service and asked me to speak about Jesus. As I was speaking the 'Good News', one of then said, 'Shall we start?'" recalled Masih.

The two men then began punching the pastor in the face. Four others joined in using wooden sticks to beat the pastor from head to foot. Meanwhile television cameras captured the attack, which took place in front of the pastor's wife and 7-year-old daughter, and the images were shown across India.

About ten families, most of them of Hindu background, are regular members at the church run by Pastor Masih from his rented house in the Geejghar Vihar suburb of Jaipur. Following the attack, some of the newer families have stopped attending, saying they are too scared to take part in the services.

"But I will never quit this Good News ministry," said Masih. He added that he hoped his determination to carry on his work of evangelism would bring more Hindus to his church.

There are fewer than 100 000 Christians among the 57 million people of Rajasthan.

The pastor told ENI that he also had moments of joy after the attack, when several Hindus visited him. He said they told him, "This is very bad and it is not Hinduism."

Critics say the police seldom take action against those accused of attacks on Christians, especially in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, whose opponents accuse it of following a Hindu nationalist agenda.

However, after the attack on Masih, and following angry protests by Christians and civil rights groups, Rajasthan police arrested five people.

Source: ENI
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NEW DELHI (UCAN) -- People across India have welcomed the Vatican guidelines on road use as a unique and timely aid that can foster social responsibility.

The Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers, after observing that road negligence annually kills 1.2 million people and wounds 50 million others worldwide, issued its "ten commandments" for drivers on June 19.

"You shall not kill" is one such "commandment" in the council's Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road. Others include: "On the road, protect the more vulnerable party" and "Feel responsible toward others."

According to Cardinal Renato Martino, the council's president, the "commandments" link the Church to world realities and motivate national bishops' conferences to include road use in their pastoral ministry.

Several people shared their appreciation of the guidelines with UCA News.

Father Anthony Charanghat, Bombay archdiocese spokesperson, said they dispel "the myth" that the Church is unconcerned about people's daily problems. By issuing the guidelines, he said, the Church makes religion "come alive" on the roads, and its suggestions could help curb road rage cases, especially those involving young people.

Joseph Dias, a Catholic lay leader in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) in western India, said the Vatican has shown concern for people's "temporal and mundane matters," not just for "our spirituality."

James Sylvester, a Catholic lay leader in Andhra Pradesh, said the "catchy and attractive" guidelines will remind drivers to exercise social responsibility and help the weak.

Brother Varghese Theckenath pointed out that roads have become major killers in developing countries, so he also welcomes the guidelines as "a good initiative." The Montfort Brother, who works in southern India's Andhra Pradesh state, said they will create awareness about proper use of roads and make society "a little more humane."

Ashwita Arogyam, a young Catholic, was impressed that the guidelines stress social responsibility on the road. She said they are "very relevant" in India, where few follow traffic rules, and she wants schools to teach the guidelines.

Three days after the Vatican released the guidelines, India's Supreme Court issued a call for stricter punishment for reckless driving. The court noted that road accidents killed 59,927 people last year in India.

Several states also record hundreds of road deaths annually. In Bihar, eastern India, around 2,000 people die on the road annually. Andhra Pradesh in the south says 3,000 people died and 15,470 others were wounded in 11,158 road accidents during the first three months of 2007. In 2006, Goa in western India registered 222 road deaths, while Kerala, another southern state, had 3,077.

Servelo Fernandes, recently retired deputy director of Goa's Road Traffic Authority, said the guidelines have "hit the nail on the head." Tensing Rodrigues, a Goan Catholic, lamented that easily available bank loans tempt many Indians to buy expensive cars. According to Rodrigues, the guidelines may help at least Catholics become "leaven" for social change.

Sacred Heart Sister Mary Elise, who coordinates health services in Bihar's Bettiah diocese, blames rash driving for deaths. "Most drivers drive drunk," she said. "The 'amazing' guidelines offer remedies for 'all sorts' of problems on the road." She noted that many victims are teenagers, despite India's laws against people below 18 driving. Parents encourage children do so, she said, "so if children perish in accidents, the real killers are their parents."

Hindus have also welcomed the guidelines. Rameshwar Prasad, a social activist in Bihar, said they can greatly curb road accidents, and he wants the Church to use its schools to spread the road safety message.

Last year, Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil of Ernakulam-Angamaly, head of the Syro-Malabar Church, described drunken driving as a sin that should be confessed. A pastoral letter he issued in May 2006 blames drunken and careless driving for most road accidents in Kerala, where the cardinal is based.

Father Paul Thelakat, spokesperson for the Syro-Malabar Church, said the guidelines will make people aware they are "keepers of our neighbors." concern for others, he added, should be included in Church teachings.

He also criticized the Indian craze for cars as status symbols. Pointing out that people use cars to travel even short distances, the priest, who does not drive a vehicle, asserted, "There is more dignity in walking."


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By Michael Gonsalves

Mass religious conversions of dalit and tribal people are a natural opposition to India's oppressive caste system, Church leaders and others say.

On May 27, Buddhist monks presided as more than 50,000 people from lower-caste groups and nomadic tribes became Buddhists at a function in Mumbai, 1,410 kilometers southwest of New Delhi.

Ramdas Athavale, president of the Republican Party of India, organized the program and administered the oath to the converts. He described the event as the "biggest show" of strength by people whom society neglects.

The conversion will help the dalit escape the rigid caste system that denied them equal status, he told UCA News May 29.

Dalit, meaning "broken" in Sanskrit, denotes former untouchables at the bottom of the traditional Indian caste system. Dalit form nearly 16 percent of India's 1.02 billion people. Tribal people account for about 8 percent.

Another organizer, Laxman Mane, lamented that most dalit and nomadic tribal people in India remain uneducated even 60 years after the country's independence. "Go home with dreams in your heart and send your children to school," the 56-year-old Buddhist writer told the new converts.

Auxiliary Bishop Agnelo R. Gracias of Bombay considers mass conversions of dalit and tribal people "an expression" of their fight for dignity and equality. Bombay is the old name of Mumbai, India's commercial hub and the capital of Maharashtra state.

The first mass dalit conversion in India came in 1955, when B.R. Ambedkar, champion of India's untouchables, and 200,000 dalit embraced Buddhism. Dalit groups have organized similar events since.

Bishop Gracias told UCA News June 2 that religious conversion gives dalit legitimate status in a society that has kept them down for centuries. Even so, the prelate saw "political color" in the recent event since some political parties supported it. They want to gain a vote bank for the 2009 general election, he remarked.

Bishop Thomas Dabre of Vasai, whose diocese neighbors Bombay archdiocese, also sees the event as a "natural revolt," but he disapproves of people changing religion without an inner conversion. In "such a large exodus from one religion to another, it is questionable whether spiritual values were imbibed," he added.

Leaders and scholars from other religions also were among the people with whom UCA News spoke about mass conversion.

Irfan Engineer, an Islamic scholar, said such an act is a "defiance" of the "oppressive caste system" and "does not involve learning the tenets of the faith." According to him, mass conversions have become a movement in India, especially when federal and state elections are near.

Jesuit theologian Father Peter Arockiadoss said mass conversions signal an assertion of political, social, economic and cultural freedom by the dalit and tribal people. Upper caste groups have brainwashed these people over centuries to accept their status, he charged.

Swami Agnivesh, a Hindu ascetic, pointed out that caste is determined at birth, leaving no freedom to choose a religion. Those born as "low castes" are seen as "unlucky," fated to endure centuries of "inhuman existence," he explained. In such a situation, he continued, conversion is a "symbolic protest" and a means to seek equal opportunities.

Ram Puniyani, professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, observed that dalit and tribal people have lived "on the mercy of the rich and influential" for centuries. These landless and "poorest of the poor" people face harassment whenever some theft or looting occurs in villages, he added.

Abraham Mathai, vice chairperson of Maharashtra's Minority Commission, described the mass conversion as a "political assertion" and a "noble action demonstrating freedom of conscience."

Right-wing Hindu leaders say they have no problems with dalit converting to Buddhism. "We do not consider the event as stealing our flock, as Buddhism is part and parcel of Hinduism and Indian culture," explained Ram Madhav.

The spokesperson for Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (national volunteers' corps), the umbrella organization of groups campaigning to make India a Hindu theocratic state, said such events show that dalit and tribal people "are moving from a caste-based religion to casteless religion." But he dismissed the mass conversion as "a political gimmick" to help politicians.

He claimed his organization has campaigned against the caste system.

UCA News

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By Anto Akkara

Bangalore, India (ENI). Christian groups in Pakistan are again demanding the scrapping of a draconian blasphemy law after a number of blasphemy cases were imposed on Christians in recent days.

"The religious extremists are furthering their agenda by abusing the blasphemy laws while the government constantly refuses to discuss the issue on any proper forum," lamented the National Justice and Peace Commission of the Roman Catholic church in a statement. Type your summary here

Younis Masih, a 29-year-old Christian from Lahore, had been sentenced to death on 30 May for allegedly making derogatory remarks about Muhammad on 9 September 2005. On that day, a neighbour of Masih demanded that Christians gathering in their town observe Muslim and not Christian rituals. This precipitated an argument that resulted in the charges and the death sentence being meted out to Masih.

Then, four Christian students and two teachers of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Rawalpindi on 1 June were charged with blasphemy when they were accused of crossing out a Quranic verse on a notice board. The suspended staff included the Christian principal, Stella Nazir, who says she was on leave on the day of the alleged desecration.

"A true democracy would remain impossible while the discriminatory laws such as section 295 B and C of the Pakistan Penal Code [blasphemy law] were part of the statutes," stated the Catholic commission, reiterating demands for the scrapping of the law.

"Blasphemy cases are increasing daily. This is really worrying," Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the commission, told Ecumenical News International.

The Catholic commission has noted that at least 25 persons have had to face blasphemy allegations in 2007 with 16 of those charged being Christians, which includes nine women. The blasphemy law, he lamented, "has become very handy for those who want to harass us [Christians]".

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(UCAN) -- Church people joined tribal leaders to condemn the rape of tribal women inside a police station in Jharkhand state, eastern India.

On Feb. 3, the state's administration arrested a policeman after tribal people threatened to mete out bithlaha on the accused, referring to an extreme form of ostracism in the Santal tribal penal system. Under this form of punishment, the guilty is driven from the community and his property destroyed.

Two days earlier, more than 25,000 tribal people from the state's major towns surrounded the police station in Sunderpahari, a village in Godda district. They alleged the station officer and another policeman raped three women from the Mal Paharia tribe on the nights of Jan. 11 and 12.

The police arrested the women on Jan. 10 in connection with the murder of a tribal man. Devendra Paharia, who heads the Mal Paharia tribe, said the police acted under the conviction that torture and rape would break the women down easily as tribal women value their chastity. He alleged the policemen cut the women's sexual organs and made them drink urine.

Hemlal Murmu, a Santal who represents the region in parliament, told UCA News Feb. 5 the arrest has not satisfied the tribal people. The police "brutality on the innocent women of a small primitive tribe" has shaken everyone in the state, he added.

Paharia said the incident has made "the entire tribal community angry and restive." The support from the region's major tribes has emboldened his numerically small tribe to fight for justice, he added.

Most of the Feb. 1 demonstrators were Santal, who dominate the region. Other tribes such as Kharia, Munda and Oraon also joined the protest.

Several Church people condemned the alleged incident. Father Peter Raposo, spokesperson of Ranchi archdiocese, termed as "ironic" that poor tribal people suffer such "barbaric" acts in a state ruled by their own people.

A coalition led by a tribal chief minister rules the state now. "If this government cannot protect the tribal people and give them justice, then who will?" asked Father Raposo, speaking with UCA News in Ranchi, the state capital, 1,160 kilometers southeast of New Delhi.

Sunderpahari is 20 kilometers east of Godda, which is 335 kilometers northeast of Ranchi.

Father Raposo warned that the tribal people will "take law into their hands" if they experience "persistent and gross injustice."

Bishop P.D.S. Tirkey of the North-West Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church condemned the alleged police "brutality" and said he hopes "our tribal women get justice without delay."

Another Catholic priest, Father C.R. Prabhu of the All Religion Forum Ranchi, said the call for bithlaha on the erring policemen has not surprised people in the state. The rape and torture of the tribal women "are unbearable for society," he declared.

Chief Minister Madhu Koda told UCA News Feb. 1 that the rape was "a very unpleasant incident" and promised not to spare the culprits.

At the Feb. 1 demonstration, Murmu announced that the tribes would declare bithlaha on the erring policemen if the administration failed to arrest them before Feb. 4.

Paharia said that the tribal youths would kill the policemen if bithlaha is declared against them.

Biglal Oraon, who heads the police in Godda district, told media on Feb. 4 the police have arrested one policeman and launched a search for the accused station officer, who has gone missing.