Bhubaneswar: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has condemned the alleged assault on Catholic priests and nuns from the southern state in Odisha’s Balasore district.

According to Vijayan, the Catholic priests and nuns from Kerala were allegedly assaulted by the goons of Sangha Parivar in Jaleswar area of Balasore district on false charges of religious conversion.

The Kerala Chief Minister has termed the incident as Hindutva vigilantism and urged the secular and democratic forces to resist such communal witch-hunt against Christians in the country.

“Reports of an assault on Keralite Catholic priests & nuns by Sangh Parivar goons in Jaleswar, Odisha, on false charges of religious conversion, reflect the ongoing communal witch-hunt against Christians in the country, exemplified by the arrest of nuns in Chhattisgarh weeks ago. Such Hindutva vigilantism, enabled by the regime’s impunity, must be unitedly resisted by secular & democratic forces,” said Vijayan in a social media post yesterday.