NEW DELHI (UCAN) -- Police have arrested Hindu religious leaders, connecting them with terrorism, but the Catholic Church says criminals should not be linked to religions.

Police in Maharashtra state, western India, have arrested eight Hindus, including two self-styled religious leaders and two army officers, for bomb explosions in a Muslim area three months ago.

Those arrested, between Oct. 23 and Nov. 12, also include a retired army officer and three Hindu activists. The police accuse them of aiding and executing twin blasts on Sept. 29 that killed six people in Malegaon, a town 300 kilometers north of Mumbai, the state capital. Mumbai is 1,410 kilometers southwest of New Delhi.

An earlier blast in the town on Sept. 8, 2006, killed 37 people.

Media have claimed the arrests prove Hindu terrorism exists in India and terrorists have infiltrated the Indian army.

However, the Catholic Church opposes religious labeling of terrorists.

"We should not label terrorism with any religion, because it will be equal to blaming a religion and all its followers for the crime," said Father Babu Joseph, spokesperson of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India.

"Terrorism, no matter from whichever corner it comes, should be denounced by all," the Divine Word priest told UCA News.

The connections between the arrested and organizations that carry Hindu names are unfortunate, the Church official acknowledged. Most of the eight are linked to Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Council) or Abhinav Bharati (New India), another Hindu organization.

Jesuit educator Father Thomas Kunnunkal says it is too early to comment on alleged infiltration of the Indian army by Hindu fanatics, since the investigation has just begun.

Father Kunnunkal, who directs the Jesuit-run Indian Social Institute in New Delhi, said talking about Hindu terrorism politicizes sensitive issues.

"Terror is terror -- it doesn't have a religion," he said, adding that naming terror as Hindu or Muslim is unfair and discredits genuine followers of those religions.

A terrorist connection with Hindu organizations appeared after the Oct. 23 arrest of Pragya Singh Thakur, a 38-year-old Hindu woman ascetic. A motorbike used in the blasts was registered in her name.

Police investigators allege army officers trained the terror squad to use explosives. Colonel Prasad Shrikant Purohit, an officer who has been arrested, allegedly supplied army explosives to terrorists.

Police reportedly suspect similar army-terrorist ties in a bomb attack on a train running between New Delhi and Lahore, Pakistan, on Feb. 19, 2007, that killed 66 people, mostly Pakistanis.

Police are also investigating four other unsolved bomb explosions in predominantly Muslim areas and mosques since 2004, which claimed at least eight lives.

Manoj Joshi, in his Nov. 12 Mail Today newspaper column, referred to the Hindu ideology as a potentially lethal virus in the armed forces. For the past 60 years, the Indian army has remained secular and has not gotten involved in political or sectarian ideologies, he wrote.

He said any army linkage with the "religious identity of the majority community" would be dangerous and leave India's religious minorities, including Muslims and Christians, to a "very uncomfortable" fate.

Leaders of the VHP and pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian People's Party) have dismissed the arrests as politically motivated.

A Hindu ideologist, Govindacharya, said terrorism's spread is an "indication of a failing state, unable to govern in just and fair manner."

Hindu terrorism is self-contradictory, because Hinduism does not support violence in any form, he contended. According to his argument, Hinduism is an Indian-born, peace-loving religion, but aggressive proselytism by religions from outside India causes terrorism.

VHP leader S.K. Jain told media the investigation was a "witch hunt" aimed at appeasing Muslims ahead of the country's general election in early 2009. BJP leader Rajnath Singh similarly accused the Maharashtra state government of "framing Hindu leaders" for political gains. A coalition headed by the Congress party, the BJP's chief national rival, rules the state.

Newspaper editorials have blamed political parties for politicizing the cases.

To blame all inconvenient truths as political conspiracies strips investigating agencies of their dignity and credibility, The Indian Express said in its Nov. 18 editorial. "To play petty partisan politics over anti-terror investigation at this point will ensure that impartial probes will be impossible in India," the editorial continued.

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