Sandesh Prabhudesai
9 June 2000
"It appears to be a plot against the minorities while disturbing the communal harmony of the tiny state", states the Goa Church, while reacting to the bomb blast that took place in a church building in the port town of the state yesterday.
The news of the blast spread here like wild fire creating panic. The government as well as the Church has however appealed to the people to maintain calm, peace and harmony.
"We will not leave a single stone unturned in nabbing the culprits", chief minister Francisco Sardinha has assured. The issue is however expected to be discussed threadbare at the cabinet meeting scheduled today evening.
The incident took place at 10.50 am in the St Andrews Church at Vasco while the school students had got into their classes after playing in the Church compound during the interval barely five minutes before the country-made bomb blasted.
Nobody was injured since the bomb was planted on the Church window adjacent to the cemetery. Though some students take shelter of the secluded place to answer nature's call, nobody was around neither outside nor in the Church when the bomb blasted.
It has however caused significant damage to the 300-year old construction with the 80 cm-wide wall developing cracks and the ancient paintings in the Church hall getting broken into pieces. The window where the bomb was placed also got damaged.
With similar incidents taking place simultaneously in Karnataka and Hyderabad on the same day, the local police here have suddenly become tight-lipped over the issue. "We are examining all the possible angles", says Karnal Singh, CID (Crime Branch), declining to comment anything more.
It has happened for the first time in the history of Goa, only after the BJP-ruled coalition government has come to power, observes Luizinho Faleiro, the Congress leader and former chief minister.
"It is not a mere accident, but much more than that. It appears that some uncultured people want to disturb the communal harmony and establish their rule here", alleges Fr Carmo Martins, the Church spokesman, though he declines to name anybody in particular.
The incident in the meanwhile has been condemned by all the political parties here, including the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Sardinha-led Goan Peoples' Congress. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which shares power with Sardinha, is however yet to react.
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