Mexican Priests Killed While Defending Sanctuary Seeker

Mexico City, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jun, 2022 ) :Gunmen shot dead two Jesuit priests and a man seeking sanctuary at their church in northern Mexico, the government and the religious order said on Tuesday.

The priests, Javier Campos Morales and Joaquin Cesar Mora Salazar, were killed Monday in the Cerocahui community in Chihuahua state "while trying to defend a man who was seeking refuge," according to the Society of Jesuits.

The pursued man, who worked as a tour guide, was also killed.

The three bodies were then placed in the back of a pickup truck by armed men, covered with plastic and taken away, according to Father Luis Gerardo Moro Madrid, head of the order in Mexico.

Madrid said the shooter allegedly told a third priest who ran into the church: "I'm sorry, we're going to take the bodies.

" "We denounce the murder of our brothers (...) We demand justice and the recovery of the bodies," Madrid said in a separate statement, adding that the killings took place "in the context of the violence this country is experiencing." Experts say Chihuahua is an important transit route for illegal drugs bound for the United States, and is therefore violently contested between rival trafficking gangs.

Father Jorge Atilano Gonzalez, also from the religious order, told a local television station the priests had attempted to intervene because they knew the assailant, who was from the area.

"He wanted to confess" after the shooting, said Gonzalez, citing the testimony of the third priest. "What we believe is that he was in a state of alcoholism or addiction because of the reaction he had," he added.