ASIA/BANGLADESH - Attack against a PIME missionary

Dinajpur (Agenzia Fides) - "Father Piero Parolari, 64, of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), was hit this morning, on his way to the public hospital where he was serving the sick. He has two wounds to the neck. Now he is in hospital and is conscious. He will be transferred by helicopter to a military hospital in Dhaka, where he will have appropriate care". This is what Fr. Carlo Dotti, PIME, confrere of Fr. Parolari, told Fides with regards to the attack agianst the missionary. "We are concerned but we hope he can recover. Social tension in the country is high and armed groups causing violence continues", he adds.
According to the suspicions of the local people and the police, the terrorists may belong to radical Islamist groups. Fr. Dotti, who has been in Bangladesh for 41 years, notes: "Here we hear the sirens of the Islamic State. Some Bangladeshis recruited in Syria, although the government punishes the recruitment of jihadists. However these attacks give visibility, as the case for the recent killing of the Italian Cesare Tavella and of another Japanese. The police now have asked us missionaries not to go out on our own unless escorted", he says.
Interviewed by Agenzia Fides, the Bishop of Dinajpur, His Exc. Mgr. Sebastian Tudu, comments: "The whole community is shaken. We condemn all forms of violence. Today the main targets of terrorist groups are foreigners, and among them missionaries. We are very concerned. The social and political situation in the country has worsened. Minorities are under pressure. All the faithful are now in prayer".
The one in Bangladesh is one of the oldest missions of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), which arrived in the Indian subcontinent in 1855. Today PIME has 29 missionaries in the country, present in three dioceses: Dhaka, Dinajpur and Rajshashi. The missionaries are engaged at a pastoral level in parishes and in educational and social works like schools, clinics, hospitals. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 18/11/2015)

Share:

missionary institutes

---

---

religious minorities

---

---

islam

---

---