Aastha Thakur
Published on: 03 September 2022 at 21:48 ST
National Christian League’s president filed a petition with the Punjab and Haryana High Court today to demand that protection be provided for churches in Punjab.
Instructions have also been requested in order to prevent damage to the property, which includes Jesus Christ sculptures. Further guidance has been requested “in view of the current out-of-control law and order situation” to protect the minority community in the state.
Following the recent event involving the destruction of a church in Tarn Taran, petitioner Jagdish Masih said that this was necessary for the sake of justice. It was also necessary, according to his attorney JS Bains, for preserving the state’s peace and harmony.
Forcible conversions in border areas were mentioned in the statement, according to Bains, “further adding fuel to this very sensitive topic, in which the presence of some foreign organisations could not be ruled out.”
According to Bains, the question that needed to be decided by the court was whether the Constitution’s guarantees of fundamental rights had been violated and if Punjab’s law-and-order situation was out of control.
The hearing on the petition has not yet taken place.
A three-person SIT has been formed by the Punjab Police to investigate the vandalism of a church in the Tarn Taran district village of Patti.