Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday that he “is deeply concerned” about two separate incidents over the weekend in which Christians appear to have been targeted.
On Saturday, an elderly Christian nun was raped in the state of West Bengal and on Sunday, a half-constructed church was apparently demolished by a mob in the northern state of Haryana close to the capital Delhi.
The Prime Minister’s office “has asked for immediate report on facts and action taken regarding the incidents in Haryana and West Bengal,” Mr. Modi tweeted from his verified Twitter account Tuesday morning.
Ten men have been detained for questioning in West Bengal in connection with thealleged rape of the nun and robbery at the convent where she lived on Saturday, police said. Protests erupted in Kolkata this week against what demonstrators said was police inaction in the case.
Police in Haryana’s Hisar district, where a half-built church was allegedly razed to the ground by a mob Sunday, said Tuesday that no arrests have been made so far in connection with the incident and the matter is under investigation.
Amid criticism that his government hasn’t done enough to protect the minorities, Mr. Modi, who has Hindu nationalist roots, has been calling for religious tolerance after a series of recent high-profile cases of alleged vandalism and one arson attack at Christian churches in New Delhi. In a speech at an event in the capital in February, the prime minister said his government wouldn’t allow any group “to incite hatred against others, overtly or covertly.
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