Another Convent Attacked and Looted in Bihar
Another Convent Attacked and Looted in Bihar :Center Belongs to Sisters of Charity of Nazareth
PATNA, India, JUNE 22, 2005 (Zenit.org).- A few days after the Indian Catholic episcopate appealed to the authorities for protection against attacks on Church personnel, another convent came under siege in the state of Bihar.
Early Tuesday, 10 assailants armed with guns and other weapons attacked the Chetanalaya Center run the by Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Rajgir, a tourist township in the Nalanda district in central Bihar, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Patna, the state capital.
According to the women religious, the looters took valuables and about $560 in cash.
“I was sleeping on the terrace along with 11 handicapped girls, who had stayed back during vacation,” said Sister Rose Plathottam, directress of Chetanalya. “At about 11 p.m. some 10 youths carrying guns and other weapons entered our convent … after climbing a wall.”
“Seeing nobody downstairs, they ransacked the convent in a bid to get hold of the keys to the rooms. Later they came up to the terrace, threatened me with a gun and dragged me to the ground floor,” said the woman religious. Then they asked her for her mobile phone and cash, she added.
Intimidation
Frightened, Sister Rose, who was alone at the time of the attack, opened the room and allowed the youths to take her phone and the money. They then forced her to another end of the building and demanded more money.
Meanwhile, the other gunmen ransacked the entire center, including the dispensary and school. Others intimidated the girls, ages 5 to 14, covering their faces with blankets. The assailants then fled with their loot.
“It appears that the marauders knew the place. Otherwise they would not have managed to sneak inside so easily,” provincial superior Sister Teresa Kotturan told SAR News, confirming that the police were notified the same day.
There seems to be “a pattern in all these recent attacks on convents in Bihar,” she added. “Convents are vulnerable places where greedy gangs can get away with the money.”
In fact, on June 9 two other convents in Bihar were attacked — one of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Sokho, Diocese of Bhagalpur, and the other the convent of Notre Dame in the Diocese of Bettiah.
On June 12 the state of Rajasthan was the scene of an attack on the convent of the Franciscan Sisters of Our Lady of Graces, in Bhiwadi. Nuns were injured and their belongings were looted.These and other attacks were reported by the Indian episcopate on Saturday, which requested the central government and state governments to take quick action against the attackers.
Pair of Convents Attacked in Bihar
BETTIAH, India, JUNE 13, 2005 (Zenit. org).- Two nuns were injured in apparent robbery attempts at two convents in the Indian state of Bihar. The attack occurred around midnight last Thursday. An elderly nun
was hospitalized with serious head injuries after a gang of 15 men attacked the Notre Dame convent at Raxual. The convent comes under the Diocese of Bettiah.
The same night, the convent of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth at Sokho in the Bhagalpur Diocese was attacked. No further details were available on that incident. A Sister Manjula of Notre Dame was with two other nuns and their maid when the assailants entered the convent, breaking open the gate and doors.
“They asked for money,” Father Henry Fernando of the Diocese of Bettiah told the newspaper Indian Catholic.
He said that the assailants beat the elderly nun so severely that they broke one of her ribs. Bishop Victor Thakur of Bettiah visited the convent and the injured nun in the hospital, according to the priest.
Another woman religious sustained minor injuries, added Father Fernando. Diocesan officials have filed a complaint with police. The attack on the convents is the latest in a series of assaults on priests and nuns working in Bihar. Last April, Father Matthew Uzhuthal, 72, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Patna, was stabbed. He died of his wounds May 1
HINDU EXTREMISTS ATTACK, BEAT VILLAGE CHRISTIANS IN INDIA
Hindu extremists physically attacked 11 Christian families from Jamanya village in India on May 16, when they refused to give up their faith. Problems began May 15, when village officials summoned the families to a community court. The families were accused of bringing bad luck to the village after embracing the Christian faith and were asked to renounce their faith for the common good of the village. Officials from Jamanya and other villages threatened the Christians until mid afternoon, attempting to persuade them to renounce their faith. At about 3:30 p. m., according to one witness, a mob began chasing the Christian men out of the village.
As they were running, the mob caught and beat some of them with heavy sticks. When some of the men returned to their homes after dark, they found groups of villagers outside each home, armed with weapons. The men fled again, this time to other villages where they sought shelter. On the following day, a witness reported, the mob targeted the woman..
Hindu zealots killed Hyderabad pastors: police
Hyderabad, June 25 (IANS) In a breakthrough in the investigation of the murders of two Christian pastors here, police say religious fanaticism drove three Hindu rightwing activists to abduct the victims and kill them.
Cyberabad Police have arrested prime suspect Goverdhan and are looking out for two others, saying they carried out the murders to stop evangelical activity by the victims. All the three are activists of the Hindu Vahini organisation.
Hindu Vahini has, however, denied that it was involved in the murders and accused the police of torturing its activists.
The mutilated body of pastor K. Issac Raju, 45, was found at Golconda on the city outskirts June 2. He had been missing from his house in Raidurgam area May 24.
Earlier, pastor K. Daniel, 35, was found murdered at Shamshabad, also on the city outskirts May 20. He had been abducted from his house in Asifnagar a day earlier.
They were approached by unidentified people on the pretext of solemnising marriages, police said. Both were garrotted with a rope.
Though Cyberabad police have not made a formal announcement about the breakthrough in the case, police sources said auto-rickshaw driver Goverdhan had confessed to the crime.He has been taken to Shamshabad and Golconda to reconstruct the sequence of the crimes.Police are looking out for Satyanarayana of Hyderabad and Ganesh of Karimnagar, who allegedly helped Goverdhan carry out the killings.
The three suspects were allegedly emboldened by an Orissa High Court order commuting the death sentence for Dara Singh who killed Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, police said.Police are also investigating whether they were also involved in the murder of pastor Yesudas in Karimnagar. Yesudas was abducted and murdered April 17.
The killings had spread panic among the Christian community. Police had formed special teams to solve the cases and had interrogated many suspects belonging to Hindu rightwing groups.
CHRISTIAN IN INDIA INJURED, ANOTHER MURDERED IN SEPARATE ATTACKS
A Christian couple in western India’s Gujarat state is recovering from serious injuries received in an attack in early May. Jamubhai Choudhary was slashed with an ax, and his wife, Jathriben, suffered a bone fracture. Meanwhile, the brutal murder of the Rev. K. Daniel in Hyderabad on Friday, May 20, by pouring acid over his body has shaken the Christian community in southeastern India’s Andhra Pradesh state. Law enforcement officials deny that the attacks were religiously motivated, but Christian leaders believe they are the work of Hindu extremists. “Pastor Daniel had been threatened many times by the local Rashtrya Swayamsevak Sangh,” said Sam Paul of the All India Christian Council (AICC). Samson Christian of the council added, “Hindu fundamentalists have changed their usual way of attacking minorities . . . So that their attacks can be attributed to ‘personal disputes.’” (Compass)
Hindu Extremists Attack Prayer Meeting in Rajasthan, India
Nine Christians seriously injured; situation tense.
NEW DELHI, August 15 (Compass) — Hindu extremists violently attacked a prayer meeting in Rajasthan state last night, seriously injuring nine Christians, including one woman. The mob struck at midnight on August 14, during an all-night prayer vigil held in a private home in Pathda village, Banswara district, near the border between Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The Christians had gathered for a three-day prayer meeting to mark India’s Independence Day on August 15.
“There were about 50 people from Pathda and Piploda villages at the prayer meeting, in which prayers were offered for the nation,” Patras Habil, a member of the Madhya Pradesh State Minorities Commission, told Compass.
The assailants delivered an axe blow to the head of Jeeva Badar, in whose house the prayer meeting was organized. The resulting wound required nine stitches.
“They also tried to strangle Asha Suresh, a Christian lady, which has apparently affected her vocal cords as today she is unable to speak,” Habil said, adding, “Laxman Rupara received an injury to his lower back, making him unable to stand up.”
The names of the nine Christians injured in the attack are Jeeva Badar, Border Dippa, Bua Rupa, Prabhu Baji, Laxman Rupara, Shandu Mangu, Khumji Hawala, Dangi Mangu, and Asha Suresh.
Tensions were still running high at press time. A mob of about 300 people went on a rampage today when representatives of Miracle Ministry, the Madhya Pradesh-based Christian organization that organized the prayer meeting, came to the local police station to collect a copy of the First Information Report (FIR).
“Seeing a 300-strong mob with sticks, the police had to escort the Christians back across the border to Madhya Pradesh in the afternoon,” Habil explained. “It seems there is a threat of further attacks.”
Pastor Biju Varghese of Miracle Ministry, who was at the police station, told Compass that about 20 people chased the police jeep as the Christians drove to the Madhya Pradesh border.
“We are worried about the Christians in [the area],” Varghese said. “They are not safe there.”
Varghese said those who attacked the prayer meeting were wearing the typical khaki uniform of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu extremist group. A member of the Rajasthan State Minorities Commission confirmed that the border area was the center of RSS activity in the state.
But Sanjeev Kumar, police superintendent of Banswara district, denied that Christians were seriously injured in the attack or that a Hindu extremist organization was behind it.
“It was a very ordinary clash, and no one has received serious injuries,” he said. “No organization was behind it. However, I have ordered an investigation and the arrest of the accused who are absconding.”
The police are seeking seven men in connection with the incident on charges of rioting, house-trespass with intent to commit a punishable offence, voluntarily causing hurt, and unlawful assembly.
Banswara district, which is among the poorest in the state and is populated mainly by tribal peoples, has long been a target of Hindu extremist organizations.
In 1998, Advocate P.L. Mimorth and M.P. Chaudhry of the Indian Social Institute noted that leaders of the Sangh Parivar (a family of Hindu extremist organizations under the leadership of the RSS) had declared their intention to stamp out Christianity in Banswara district by the year 2000.
Incidents of violence against Christians increased after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party defeated the Congress Party in the state elections in December 2003. In one recent example, extremists violently attacked students of the Emmanuel Mission Bible School in Rajasthan’s Kora district on February 19.
Hindutva extemists attacks prayer meeting at Delhi
Delhi, October 14: A group of 10 Hindu extremist attacked a prayer meeting which was going on at a community hall located at Dayal Pur, Karaval Nagar Road, Delhi.
A group of 10 people entered the community hall at 5:00 pm and started beating Pastor K Y Babu of Indian Pentecostal Church, Pastor Victor Masih of Compassion for India, Pastor Justine and Pastor Robin Masih. The main speaker Ps. K. Y. Babu was injured badly during the attack. He rushed to hospital where he got stitches on his head. Hindu miscreants also broke PA system; drum set which they were playing for the worship and other equipments. The meeting was started at 2:00 pm.
When believers went to the local police station to lodge a FIR, they met a local BJP MLA Mr. Mohan Singh along with a group of 150 people out side the police station. They threatened them to kill them if they continue to conduct prayer meetings at this locality. However, they managed to lodge a FIR at the local police station.
The meeting was organised by a Pastor Robin Masih. 2000 believers were present at the prayer meeting when the incident took place.
Three nuns attacked in Rajasthan
Jaipur, Oct 27 (IANS) Three Catholic nuns were beaten up by stick- wielding youths in a Rajasthan village that has witnessed rising tension over alleged conversion of tribals durin g a Christian function.
The incident occurred at Bhandaria village of Banswara district, over 500 km from here, Tuesday morning when the nuns were waiting for a bus for Udaipur.
“Over a dozen boys, armed with sticks, tried to attack us while we were trying to board the bus to Udaipur at around 5 a.m.,” said Sister Rosaria, one of the victims.”I was beaten and hit with wooden sticks,” she told IANS on phone from Udaipur.
“Sister Flora, aged 65, was pushed down while 62-year-old Sister Auxilia was beaten badly,” Rosaria said.
According to the victims, supporters of the Sangh Parivar allegedly perpetrated the attack.
Kushalgarh in Banswara district is a tribal-dominated area of Rajasthan bordering Gujarat. Tension has been brewing in the district since Oct 16 after the Sangh Parivar objected to a function organised by Catholics to mark the end of the Eucharistic year.
The Sangh Parivar had alleged that the function was organised to convert tribals.
Parbat Singh, a police official in Kushalgarh, said: “We were told of this incident and a complaint has been lodged. We have asked the nuns to come here so that a formal first information report (FIR) can be filed.”
Singh said police were investigating the incident, but did not give any details.
Violent attack on minority Christian community and Vankar community
[By Ex-President of Taluka Panchayat of Congress.]
Christian members have been admitted in Civil Hospital of Nadiad. On behalf of Christian Community, All India Christian Council protested and demanded to arrest the culprits immediately.
National Executive Member and Joint Secretary of All India Christian Council, Mr. Samson Christian states in his Press- Release that Bhoomas village is in Mahudha Taluka in Kheda district of Gujarat State.
This village has population of absent 3000 including Thakore, Patels, Vankar, Christians, Harijans, Vaghari as well as Muslims. But among all Thakores are in majority. The incident took place while celebration of New Year,
during night on 02/11/2005 and on 03/11/2005 morning as Thakore community was playing ‘Bhavai’ by erecting shamiyana. This was cultural programme so, the members of minority Christians community and of Vankar
community went to watch this programme on 03/11/2005, together. At that time the Thakores of the village attacked on Christians and Vankars with swords, sticks, sickle type instruments, pipes. They used dirty Language in the name of religion “Dhedao, why have you come?” saying this they pelted stones heavily, hurt the members of minority community, snatched ornaments, beat up in public. The attackers was a mob of 100 to 150 persons.
To save lives the Christian members ran to their houses. The attackers were led by Ramanbhai Sanabhai Patel, Ex-President of Congress-Nadiad Taluka Panchayat. The main leader of this attack was Ramanbhai Sanabhai
Patel who led the Thakores to attack. The Christians ran to save their lives but the attackers were not satisfied so under the leadership of Ramanbhai Sanabhai Patel, the mob came to Christian street of Bhoomas village, beat up the women, young girls and young boys in public, behaved badly pelted stones.
A youth Babubhai Jethabhai and Kashiben Ramanbhai were hurt more and were admitted in Civil Hospital, Nadiad. In regard of the above incident Shri Hanokhbhai Somabhai Vankar of this village took the people who become prey of this incident to Mahudha police station on 03-11-2005 the same day at 12.00 noon to file police
case. But the police on duty did not take the complaint so Hanokhbhai Somabhai Vankar went to District Superintendent of Police of Kheda District in Nadiad and gave complaint in person. So, D.S.P. phoned to Mahudha police station. So, the Police Inspector of Mahudha Police Station had to take complaint. The complaint was taken on 03-11-2005 at 2.25 noon.
So, in Mahudha police station F.I.R. No. 152/2005 according to IPC 337, 504, 394, 147, 148, was filed and according to Atrocity Act 3(1), 10, 3 (2),5 the crime was registered. In spite of registering the crime as per Atrocity Act regarding this serious attack on 03-11-2005 and inquired by Deputy Superintendent Of Police of Kapadvanj Shri R.F. Singada the culprits including congress leader having strong political position have
not been arrested by police and the people who have become prey have not been given justice.
The main thing is to be noted that during 1986 the Thakores and Patels of the village had attacked and Patels of the village had attacked and pelted stones on Christian street by making issue of filling water. At that time Rameshbhai Sanabhai Patel of Congress had taken leadership of the attack. At that time the Christians asked police protection so, Mahudha police rushed immediately to the village. The Thakores and Patels had pelted stones on police vehicle and the vehicle was damaged heavily and the police vehicle was over turned. In this way police was attacked by Thakores and Patels. So, S.R.P. force was called and the situation was brought under control. At that time S.R.P. arrangements was remained in Christian street for six months. Thakores threaten Christians to burn alive and kill.
It is our strong demand to arrest congress leader Rameshbhai Sanabhai Patel under PASA and other attackers according to police complaint and give enough police protection to the Christians as minority Christian
community is becoming more unsafe in Gujarat State., taking serious note of the above incident.
AICC alert -Chhattisgarh 
astor Masih Das Rai arrested
PERSECUTION:
Pastor Masih Das Rai was arrested in Palari, Chattisgarh under the Freedom of Religion Act for allegedly forcibly converting Hindus. The arrest took place after charges were levied against him by the Dharam Raksha Sena (DRS). The DRS, a wing of the RSS, arrived at the spot where Pastor Masih was conducting a baptism ceremony on 10th November 2005 and brutally attacked those present. The new converts were then coerced into stating that they were forcibly being converted to Christianity. Rai is presently in Baloadabazar Jail, Chattisgarh.
Efforts are in progress to file a bail application in the sessions court. Please pray for his early release.
OM team attacked in Maharashtra
