groups carried out four violent attacks on Catholics in the last two weeks for allegedly converting Hindus to Christianity.
The attacks, in which several Christians including nuns were injured, took place in Rajasthan’s Banswara district, the BosNewsLife New Delhi Bureau established. Catholic officials said the violence began October 16, a day after the local Catholic Church held a program to conclude its Eucharist celebrations in Banswara district, a southern area of Rajasthan bordering Madhya Pradesh state.
Militants of Sangh Parivar, a Hindu group affiliated with the influential Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organization, injured at least one nun during protests against the church’s Eucharist program, saying it was "aimed at converting Hindus to Christianity." Several other incidents followed.
The latest attack was Tuesday, October 25, when a group of Hindu extremists of an offshoot of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), or ‘World Hindu Council’, beat up five elderly nuns, church sources said. That incident "took place at 5 am on Tuesday when the five nuns were boarding a bus at Bhandariya bus stop in Banswara’s Kushalgar Taluka to go to Udaipur city," explained Father Marcel Baria, a local Catholic priest who was himself injured in another incident.
"A young man, who spotted the nuns at the bus stop, went on his motorbike to a nearby hostel…and brought with him about 15 more youth carrying sticks. The attackers reached the bus stop when the bus was about to start, and tried to pull the nuns out," to beat them with sticks, he told BosNewsLife in an interview.
NUNS BEATEN
Baria said "the miscreants brutally hit Sister Rosario, 68, with sticks. They pushed down Sister Flora, 65, and hit Sister Auxilia, 62, on her back. The other two nuns escaped unhurt." The injured nuns rushed to a hospital in Udaipur and received first aid, BosNewsLife learned.
The priest lodged a complaint with local police but no one has been arrested yet, a police official confirmed to BosNewsLife. "No one has been arrested. In fact, no one has been named in the First Information Report," Assistant Sub-Inspector Suri Singh said. His chiefs, Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Kumar and Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajender Kumar, were not available for comment.
"We registered a First Information Report (FIR) on the day of the attack under Sections 323 of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 107 and 116 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Section 323 of the IPC is for voluntarily causing hurt. Sections 107 and 116 of the Criminal Procedure Code are for disturbing the public tranquility," Singh added.
The apparent reluctance by police to act against Hindu extremists came as disappointment for priest Baria, who said that last week another group of Hindu militants of the Sangh Parivar group "violently attacked" him and three Catholic youth at a Banswara city bus stand. He said the attackers arrived on October 21 "in a vehicle…armed with sticks and sword-like weapons. They hit a Catholic young man, Sunil Baria, with a sharp weapon making a deep cut on his head."
PRIEST INJURED
They also "beat up two other young people" who were with Baria, identified only as Rocky and George. The priest claimed militants tried to kidnap Rocky after the attack, but said he managed to escape. Baria said he himself was given "seven stitches" on his head, while Rocky was injured on his back, and George sustained minor injuries.
When the priest’s father, Lawrence Baria, went to the Banswara City Police Station to lodge a complaint, a police inspector allegedly refused to act, saying Christians were responsible for the violence and threatening Bariat’s father with a criminal case.
Lawrence Baria and other Christians later managed to register their complaint with higher police officials, but two of the suspects, identified as Moti Lal Patel and Taju were only briefly detained October 22 before being released the same day. The suspects had allegedly verbally attacked three young people a few hours prior to the attack near the Banswara bus stand, but a traffic policeman apparently prevented a physical attack.
On October 16, the day the Catholic Church held its Eucharist celebration program and the series of violent incidents began, a Catholic nun was attacked while she was coming to Kushalgarh Taluka to attend the event, priest Baria said. "A few extremists got into a bus and looked for any Christian who was going to attend the Catholic program. When they saw a nun, Sister Esther, wearing a Rosary, they dragged her down and beat her," he recalled.
PELTING STONES
"They forced her to keep the Rosary before the bus so that it could be crushed under its wheels. But the bus driver refused to start the bus," Baria added. The same day, "a group of extremists" blocked the main road and pelted stones at the vehicle of the Catholic Bishop of the Udaipur diocese, Joseph Pathalil, who was coming to attend the function, he said.
Pathalil identified RSS leaders Moti Lal Patel and Rakesh Damor as having led the mob that attacked his vehicle. The Hindu, a national daily, reported Thursday, October 27, that tension prevailed in the area and quoted local officials as saying that 200 extra police forces had been deployed in the troubled region.
Hindu group Sangh Parivar made clear it will keep up the pressure.
