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Crowd gathers outside the St.George Catholic church, New Panvel, which was attacked by miscreants on late Saturday night.

A day after a church in Navi Mumbai was vandalised, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Sunday that the police had started a search for the attackers with the help of CCTV footage.

 Stones were thrown at St. George Church in New Panvel in the early hours of Saturday, damaging the glass encasing of a statue.
 
“We will definitely nab the culprits. And whoever tries to create communal tension in Maharashtra by attacking places of worship will not be spared,” Mr. Fadnavis, who holds charge of the Home Ministry, told presspersons in Nagpur on Sunday.
 
“We are trying to establish the identity of the accused in the footage,” Fateh Singh Patil, Additional Commissioner of Police, Navi Mumbai, told The Hindu. Christian community leaders have condemned the attack and called for immediate arrest of the accused. They warned of a strong, but peaceful backlash by the community in case of any such vandalism attempts in Mumbai. All the minority leaders in the State plan to hold a meeting this week to discuss the issue. They said the Navi Mumbai incident had brought the violence to the doorsteps of Mumbai.
 
Christians see a sinister pattern

Christian community leaders see a sinister pattern in attacks on churches, whether it is in Delhi, Haryana, Jabalpur or now Navi Mumbai.

Arresting the culprits promptly would send a message loud and clear that such acts of vandalism will not be tolerated in Maharashtra, a press statement issued by Save Our Land said.

The community leaders denied reports of a bandh of all church-run schools in Mumbai on March 25. “There are no such plans. It goes against the teachings of Christianity which believes in forgiving,” Abraham Mathai, president of Indian Christian Voice, said.

Jabalpur Church Attack: 6 Arrested, Granted Bail Within an Hour

Church authorities claim that the attackers created ruckus in the premises and broke flower pots

Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh:  Six people, including the chief of a Hindu fringe group which allegedly vandalised a church in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur on Friday night, were briefly arrested today. They were let off within an hour after being granted bail.

 About two dozen members of Hindu Dharma Sena allegedly attacked the church and beat up tribals who had come to attend a three-day Bible convention there, accusing the church of carrying out religious conversions.

 According to church authorities, members of the group entered the hall of Saint Thomas School late on Friday night and roughed up tribals. Around 200 tribals were sleeping in the hall at the time. The men also allegedly broke earthen pots, shattered glass panes of windows and even broke windshields of cars outside the Parish Priest’s office, close to the Cathedral.

 But the Hindu Dharma Sena denied the allegations.

 "They (Christians) are blackmailing us as we have exposed them. They are converting tribals. We have not damaged any property of the church," said Yogesh Agrawal, state President, Hindu Dharma Sena.

 The church has refuted the allegations of conversions, claiming that those who attended the convention were Christians.