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INDIA Christians attacked again in Karnataka
17-08-2009
MANGALORE, India (UCAN) -- Hindu radicals have apparently attacked a teachers' training camp organized by a Christian group in Karnataka, southern India, the scene of waves of anti-Christian violence last year.
Members of the Rama Sene (Ram's army) and Bajrang Dal (party of the strong and stout) groups attacked the camp's organizers and participants around midnight on Aug. 11, according to Sajan K. George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC).
The attackers accused the Christian group of training people for religious conversions.
George told UCA News that when police were called, they sided with the Hindus, stopped the camp and detained the organizers.
The Aug. 11-14 residential camp of 50 men and 24 women at Annigere, a village in Dharwad district, was organized by Seva Bharath Mission India, a Christian service organization. The camp was to train teachers for a literacy campaign.
George said the Hindu radicals verbally abused and manhandled the women, aged 17-23.
"They created terror in the camp" and "beat up sleeping participants," George said. "All their Bibles and mobile phones were confiscated during the attack that lasted for around 90 minutes."
Seva Bharath Mission India, a faith-based NGO headed by an inter-denominational council, works in rural development and has been active in Karnataka's northern region for nine years. It conducts literacy classes for adults and provides tuition for street children as well as formal educational programs.
According to GCIC sources, four pastors were seriously injured in the attack. Some later lodged a complaint at the Annigere police station. The Hindu radicals also detained camp participants, while police later arrested eight pastors who were at the camp.
George said the attackers also detained local people and pastors who visited the scene but released them later. Such detention, he said, is a serious human rights violation.
George accused Karnataka's pro-Hindu government of conspiring with the radical groups.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people's party) has ruled the state since May 2008. The party is considered the political arm of groups that want to establish a Hindu theocratic state in India.
The GCIC has lodged a complaint to the Karnataka governor, the federal home minister and the National Human Rights Commission over the incident.
Father Faustin Lobo, secretary of the Karnataka Regional Catholic Bishops' Council, has condemned the incident as an "inhuman attack on humanity." The Catholic Church is deeply pained to see recurring attacks on Christians in Karnataka, the priest told UCA News.
http://www.ucanews.com/2009/08/17/christians-attacked-again-in-karnataka...
