Catholic center in India receives police protection following threats

Published: 2004-04-13

AHMEDABAD, India (CNS) -- Police in the western Indian state of Gujarat have given protection to a Catholic center following threats by Hindu activists upset over a Supreme Court ruling. On April 12 the nation's highest court quashed the acquittal of 21 people accused in a riot case and ordered their retrial in a court outside Gujarat. Soon after media reported the verdict, a group of militants surrounded the Prashant (tranquility) center run by Jesuit Father Cedric Prakash in Ahmedabad, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. Father Prakash was among those who had demanded new trials in cases related to Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002. The riots claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims.

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