Church demolition: Silent protest by Christians

Vijayawada: Members of the Christian community led by the Human Rights Association of India (HRAI) held a silent protest at Madhuranagar here on Wednesday condemning the demolition of the church by the officials of the Municipal Corporation last week. The members said that the civic officials have pulled down the church without even giving them a chance to collect the valuables, including the Holy Bible, from the church. The attitude of the civic officials towards the Christian minorities was condemnable, they said and demanded that the officials reconstruct the church at the same site. They said that incident had hurt the sentiments of hundreds of Christians who offer prayers every day at the church. The Christians have been holding prayers at the site by putting up temporary shed as a mark of protest.A The HRAI State legal secretary, M Victor Prasad, who led the silent protest of the Christians, condemned the attitude of the civic officials in pulling down the church without giving respects to the sentiments of the people. Christian leaders Kunchala Prasad, K H Benjamin, Ch Manoranjani and others were present.