Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has strongly condemned the murder of a Catholic priest in India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday and called for a proper investigation into the attack.

Father Thomas Pandippallyil's body was found in Nizamabad district on Sunday morning, bearing the marks of eighteen stab wounds and submersion under water.

According to Indian Catholics, his body was severely disfigured and his eyes had been gouged out. Although the priest is not known to have received any previous threats, local sources and investigators believe that the attack was religiously-motivated.

Priests in the area are calling for the attack to be investigated by the Central Bureau for Investigation (CBI) rather than the state police. They believe that the murder may have been motivated by opposition to his involvement in a local Catholic school.

Sam Paul, Secretary of Public Affairs at CSW's partner organisation, the All India Christian Council (aicc), said, "Religious fundamentalism continues to wreak havoc in India, creating fear and instability and perpetuating the vulnerability of religious minorities.

"The faith of the Christian community in the justice system has been severely damaged by the lack of convictions in communal attacks.

"We are calling on the authorities to ensure that the perpetrators of this horrendous crime be brought to justice, after which they must publicly clarify the motive for the murder."

CSW has recorded a consistent pattern of religiously-motivated attacks against Christians in Andhra Pradesh. Several church leaders have been murdered in the state during recent years and many more have been physically assaulted, but convictions for these attacks are almost unknown.

CSW's Advocacy Director, Alexa Papadouris, said, "We strongly condemn this attack, and urge the authorities to treat it with the seriousness which it warrants, ensuring that it is properly investigated and the motives thoroughly probed.

"Christians in India face religiously-motivated violence on a huge scale, which routinely goes unpunished.

"The massive problem of impunity for perpetrators of horrendous crimes is totally incongruous with the role which India envisages for herself in the twenty-first century."