New Delhi, Feb 13 (Agencies): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday summoned Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi after a theft at a convent school in south Delhi.
This is the first time in the recent past that a school has been vandalised here. However, attack on churches have been repeated thrice lately.
Ordering Bassi to take strict action against attack on minorities, the Prime Minister further directed the police commissioner to come down hard on those involved in the incident.
He also told Bassi to form a special team to probe incidents, including recent attack on churches.
The PM summoned Bassi hours after Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, an alumnus of the institution, visited the Holy Child Auxilium School in south Delhi's Vasant Vihar and urged Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to look into the matter.
Delhi Chief Minister-designate Arvind Kejriwal has also condemned the attack.
An unidentified group ransacked Holy Child Auxilium School here earlier in the day.
Staff members of the school told police that a few CCTV cameras installed in the school premises were damaged and the office of the principal was ransacked.
"Some CCTV cameras were damaged and the office of the school principal was ransacked by some unidentified people early Friday," Delhi Catholic Archdiocese spokesperson Father Savarimuthu Sankar told a news agency.
Sankar said school children have been sent back to their homes after the incident came to light.
Meanwhile, Bassi said that an initial investigation has shown that it was a case of theft and not religious-oriented desecration.
"Money was stolen from a donation box in the school premise. This is a case of theft, not a matter of desecration," said Bassi.
Leaders of the Christian community, however, said that some members of a group have been intentionally targeting the community and this is the sixth such attack within 11 weeks.
Sankar claimed that the attack sent a clear message that a group is trying to "fill fear" among the Christian community.
He said that five churches have been attacked since December 2014 and this is the sixth such attack.
"We see a clear pattern in all the attacks. Earlier we thought that these attacks have a connection with the Delhi polls," said Sankar.
"Now it has been clear that this is a handiwork of some fundamentalist group whose motive is to fill fear among the Christian community," Sankar said.
According to the 2011 Census report, the number of Christians was around 130,000 in Delhi, home to about 17 million. The Christian population in India is 24 million among the total of 1.2 billion.