ASSEMBLY POLL '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS '98
ARCHIVES

RSS attacks pastors in Kerala

D Jose

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has struck again in the south Indian state.

Late Tuesday night, its activists attacked two Pentecost pastors at Kumbazha in Pathanamthitta district.

Superintendent of Police Manoj Mathew said a gang of 12, armed with iron rods and stones, waylaid Cyril Thomas, 27, and Eby John, 35, when they were returning from a prayer meeting in an autorickshaw (a three-wheeler motorised vehicle). The rickshaw driver was also injured.

All are being treated for head injuries at the Pathanamthitta district hospital.

Mathew told Rediff On The NeT that the culprits have been arrested. They are between 21 and 38 years of age. While three have been released with warnings, nine were produced in court: Gopakumar, 24, Anil Kumar, 28, Rajesh Kumar, 23, Chandrashekharan, 38, Anil Kumar, 26, Sudheer Kumar, 29, Madhu Kumar, 20, Sunil Kumar, 22 and Manoj Kumar, 21.

Police said Thomas had been facing threats from the RSS for the past one week. In fact, a group of workers had barged into his house on January 30 and taken away his valuables, including a Bible.

The RSS claims that Thomas, who goes out for prayers in different houses, has converted 13 persons recently.

The attack in Pathanamthitta has come as a severe shock to many, since the region forms part of Kerala's Christian belt.

This is the second attack on Christians in the state in the last 10 days. Earlier, three seminary students in Vadakara were attacked by RSS workers. Seven of their 10 assailants were arrested. The search for the rest is still on.

The Sangh Parivar, for its part, has accused the police of arresting and torturing innocent youths -- 52 persons were taken into custody when they took out a procession against the arrest of the Vadakara accused.

A recent convention of the Hindu Eikyavedi, held in the state capital Trivandrum, decided to send a fact-finding team to the town.

Meanwhile, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has warned foreign evangelists on tourist visas not to take part in the annual Maramon convention, Asia's biggest religious seminar. It is scheduled to take place in Kozhencherry from February 14 to 21.

The VHP says evangelists come to India posing as tourists and preach religion, thus violating visa regulations.

The organisers of the Maramon convention fear that the warning and Tuesday's attack are part of an attempt to disrupt the seminar that has been going off smoothly for the past 100 years.

RELATED REPORT:
VHP ups the ante against Christian convention

The Christian Attacks Row

Tell us what you think of this report