Some of India’s leading Christians have released a joint statement condemning the “cowardly” bomb attack on worshippers and train passengers in the city of Varanasi yesterday, March 7th, 2006.

|PIC1|The President of the All India Christian Council, Dr Joseph D’Souza, and Dr John Dayal, President of the All India Catholic Union and the Delhi United Christian Action released the following statement:

“Innocent blood of children, women and men has been shed in vain, as such attacks advance no political cause, nor do they serve any group of people. What they do achieve is in inflicting suffering on the common people and setting back national peace and reconciliation processes.

Such violence also serves the purpose of fundamentalist and religious extremists who thrive on exacerbating real and imagined divides and grievances which further their pernicious political and social agendas. They want national attention and energies diverted from development, from the fight against poverty and hunger and from the long struggle of the Dalits for human dignity.

It is for the governments of the state and the centre to ensure the safety of the people. The Christian leadership calls on all right-thinking citizens to ensure the continuance of peace and stability, and to ensure that religious and political extremism is told in no uncertain terms that it has no place in a modern, democratic, secular and republican India.

Our hearts go out to the survivors who are in hospital in critical condition, and to the relatives of the dead. We stand in sympathy and solidarity with the victims of such acts of terrorism.