The strong reaction from Christian leaders came at a joint press conference in New Delhi, addressed by Archbishop Alan de Lastic, president of the Catholic bishops’ conference of India, Bishop Karam Masih of Delhi of the Protestant Church of North India, and John Dayal, head of the United Christian Forum for Human Rights. The press conference was in response to the murder of a Catholic missionary brother who was beaten to death, and the bomb attacks on four churches.

The murder of Brother George Kuzhikandam in Navada village in northern Uttar Pradesh state, the church leaders pointed out, was “the culmination of nearly identical attacks on priests, nuns, and lay persons in several places in the last six months.”

“The sharp escalation in anti-Christian violence—in the number of incidents, their intensity, extent, and quality—is an ominous development that must deeply worry government, political leaders, and civil society. We are intrigued by the response of those in power, and saddened at the silence of the government,” continued the statement. The Christian leaders accused the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party government of failure to curb the anti-Christian violence. They said that government ministers and police officials have chosen to interpret the assaults on Christians as “no more than isolated criminal incidents,” and questioned “why those in authority do not see the pattern in the violence, and why they hesitate to explore fully all dimensions of the anti-Christian environment that has been created” in several states.