An Orthodox church was stoned in Kosovo

October 15, 2015. In Orahovac (Kosovo), unknown persons started to throw stones in the courtyard of the church of the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God, as the official website of the Serbian Orthodox Patriarchate reports.

The incident took place after the Liturgy, which had been celebrated in this church on the church feast-day of the Protection of the Mother of God and while the children of the parish priest of Orahovac Revd. Velja Stojkovic were playing in the churchyard. According to an eyewitness, who also gave a statement to the police together with the priest, four Albanian young men carried out the attack while they were passing by the church, one of whom all of a sudden threw a stone at the gate of the churchyard. Young men escaped to the area of Orahovac that is inhabited by Kosovo Albanians.

The priest informed the Kosovo police about this incident right away, and the police started conducting an investigation.

Local administration consider such attack as planned and it “continues to create an atmosphere of fear and lawlessness”. Last year on October 14th, the same day of the Great Orthodox feast of Virgin Mary, Albanian extremists stoned the parish hall of the church, where the local parish priest lives with his family, as reports novosti.rs.