Kerala bishops concerned over "attacks" against church-run institutions

KOCHI: The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC), the apex body of Catholic priests, has expressed concern over the alleged attacks against church-run educational institutions in the state. The KCBC urged the government to take immediate steps to provide adequate protection to such institutions.

The bishops' body has raised concern in the wake of tensions that prevailed in a church-run engineering college in nearby Kottayam district in connection with the suicide of a female student. In a statement, the KCBC said it shared the grief of the family members of the deceased student and was concerned and pained over the ''planned'' tension that prevailed on the college campus over the incident.

Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, KCBC president, said the church would fully cooperate with a fair investigation and proceedings into the incident. He also appealed to the government to provide necessary protection to the college and ensure a peaceful atmosphere for the students there, the statement added.

A section of students had staged a protest against the management of the church-run college in Kanjirappally after the alleged suicide of a female second-year degree student, and accused them of trying to suppress the issue by temporarily closing down the institution. Shraddha Satheesh, a resident of Ernakulam, was found hanging inside her hostel room on June 2.

Students alleged that police used unnecessary force against them at the behest of management. They also alleged that some of the teachers used to mentally harass Shraddha. Student outfits including the Students' Federation of India (SFI), KSU and ABVP, had held separate protest marches to the private engineering college in Kanjirappally against the alleged suicide of the student. The college management, however, had said they did not know why the student committed such an act.