Meghalaya Church Condemns Blasphemous Graffiti in Shillong

Shillong, Jun 20 : Church organizations in Meghalaya have condemned the blasphemous graffiti painted by an unknown group on the walls of government buildings, including the Raj Bhavan.

Noting that this was not the first blasphemous incident against Jesus Christ in Shillong, the Archbishop of Shillong Archdiocese Rev Dominic Jala convened an emergency meeting here last evening.

Speakers at the meeting expressed deep anguish at the repeated attempts of vested interests to defame the Catholic Church and hurt religious sentiments of its faithful.

The Church also urged the police to nab the culprits immediately.

Other organizations, including the Indian Catholic Youth Movement, also strongly condemned the act.

Baffling graffiti, seemingly unlinked, created a sensation in Shillong yesterday with at least five types of such drawings on unrelated objects ranging from Jesus Christ to uranium mining and Pope being stenciled on boundary walls of government buildings, including the Raj Bhawan.
The intricate graffiti works, apparently done with a stencil overnight, has sent the police into a tizzy.

While one depicted Jesus Christ with a figure of Rs 9,26,36105.80 inscribed below, another was a Pope Benedict XVI with a line below saying "Arrest This Man".

In another set of graffiti on the wall of Raj Bhavan, a man was painted with a line "How Much?".
On the walls of the deputy commissioner's office, there was a scorpion bearing a human head and written below was "Need Uranium? Thlen at your service".

Thlen in Khasi dialect means a mythical snake.

Police have registered a case under 295(A) of IPC, but no breakthrough has been made so far.