SRINAGAR: Christian communities and Church-run institutions in Jammu and Kashmir have reported significant losses and trauma following a wave of shelling from across the Line of Control, with nuns, schoolchildren and clergy caught in the crossfire.
According to The Tablet, a UK-based Catholic news outlet, Pakistani shelling on May 7 struck several sectors including Poonch, killing at least 10 civilians. Among the dead were two pupils of Christ School in Poonch, a Catholic institution run by the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate. The shells landed on the homes of the children, severely injuring their parents.
Fr Shijo Kanjiarathingal, the school’s principal, said the staff and clergy had to be urgently moved to safety. “Several priests, nuns, school staff, and local residents took refuge in an underground hall beneath the Christ School during the shelling by Pakistan,” India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri confirmed, noting that a major tragedy was averted as the school was closed at the time.
A separate shell also hit a Christian convent of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, causing damage to water tanks and solar panels, Bishop Ivan Pereira of Jammu-Srinagar told The Tablet. Following the attacks, many priests, nuns, and support staff from Church-run institutions in the border areas were relocated to safer places.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India issued a nationwide appeal for prayer, calling for special services including Eucharistic Adoration and Mass intentions for peace. “Let us pray for cessation of all forms of violence, terrorism, and war, and that our national leaders be guided by wisdom, justice, and compassion in their efforts to protect every citizen and usher peace in the region,” the bishops said.
Major Archbishop Raphael Thattil of the Syro-Malabar Church echoed the call, urging the faithful to pray “in a special manner” for soldiers on the front lines and for civilians in the border belt. “Let us pray that lasting peace be established between both nations at the earliest,” he said.
The violence follows the massacre of 26 tourists in Pahalgam on April 22, in which non-Muslim men were killed.
