Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (SP)

New Delhi, Jan 31: Vishwa Hindu Parishat general secretary Pravin Togadia has demanded for an apology from the Pope, duly pointing out that all the seven people named as accused in the charge sheet filed by the policemen relating to the murder of Hindu leader Lakshmananda Saraswati in Kandhamal, Orissa, belong to Christianity.

"All the seven people named in the charge sheet are Christians. They include a priest named Vijaykumar Sanaset," he claimed. He pressed for the Pope's apology to the Hindus for the inhuman act committed by the accused against a Hindu spiritual leader.

The Vishwa Hindu parishat had in the past, alleged that a conspriacy was being hatched in the church meetings, to kill Lakshmananda Saraswati. It had later denied the police claim, that Saraswati had been slain by the naxals.

Lakshmananda Saraswati and his four associates had been gunned down, when they were celebrating Sri Krishna Janmashtami in the premises of a tribal residential school in Kandhamal. The situation turned explosive thereafter and irate mobs had attacked churches and centres of prayer.