Roman Catholic Archbishop of Delhi Alan de Lastic, who addressed some 5, 000 people at a rally in central New Delhi, said government pledges he has received to investigate the violence and punish attackers were not enough.
22.
"There is a definite strategy and plan at the national level . . . these forces at work want to intimidate Christians, " said Archbishop Alan de Lastic, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India.
23.
On Wednesday, the forum's convenor, John Dayal, said in a telephone interview from New Delhi that de Lastic was " the voice of the Christian community and a natural leader of the entire human rights movement in India ."
24.
Wednesday in New Delhi, after he heard of the archbishop's death, Vajpayee called a meeting of Christian church leaders The prime minister called de Lastic " a man of God who had dedicated his life to the service of humankind ."
25.
De Lastic's memorandum also called on the government to " denounce all attempts to foist on the country a philosophy of one nation, one people, one culture, " _ a direct reference to the slogans of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
26.
The group _ including Roman Catholic Archbishop Alan de Lastic, and Richard Howell, general secretary of the Evangelical fellowship of India _ demanded that the commission's inquiry be made public " so that the conspiracy behind the murders is unearthed ."
27.
"Your words are very encouraging and we assure you of our prayers so that God may help you in your great work for the good of our nation, " the Rev . Alan de Lastic, Archbishop of Delhi, said in a statement.
28.
"The severity of violence, the geographic spread and the complicity of police in not recognizing the crimes . . . all go against our Indian spirit of tolerance for all religions, " the Most Rev . Alan de Lastic said at a news conference.
29.
Delhi's Roman Catholic archbishop, Alan de Lastic, denied that the church in India had ever resorted to conversions by force or by offering enticements, an allegation radical Hindu groups have often used to justify a string of attacks on Christians and their places of worship.
30.
India's most prominent Christian leader, Alan de Lastic, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Delhi, was killed Tuesday night in a car crash in Poland, where he had been been praying at Krakow's shrine to the Black Madonna following a working visit to Rome.
