More than 100 holy crosses and gravestones were vandalised by unidentified people in a Christian cemetery in South Goa's Curchorem town on Sunday night, the police said. No arrests have been made yet.
"Several gravestones were damaged by miscreants last night at the Guardian Angel Cemetery. The CCTV camera which was installed at the gate of the cemetery was also found broken," Curchorem Police Inspector Shivram Vaingankar told PTI on Monday.
The inspector said a local resident saw a man running out of the cemetery around 4:30 am. "We are working on various leads," Vaingankar added.
A spate of religious attacks has taken place in Goa since July 1 this year. Around nine holy crosses and a temple have been damaged since the beginning of July leading to heavy deployment of police personnel in several areas of the South Goa district.
Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar also directed the police to step up patrols in and around the sensitive areas of the state. Two platoons of India Reserve Battalion (IRB) were garrisoned in South Goa to assist the local police.
Local police stations in Goa have also been asked to form Special Investigation Teams (SIT) to probe such attacks. However, the police have not been able to crack the nine desecration incidents taken place in South Goa since July 1.
