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Nine held for anti-Christian attack in Kerala

Nine people have been arrested in connection with the attack on two Indian Pentacostal church pastors allegedly by a group of Sangh Parivar workers at Kumbazha in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala on Tuesday night, Chief Minister E K Nayanar told the state assembly today.

Replying to a submission by Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan (Congress), Nayanar said the BJP and RSS workers dragged the pastors, Cyril Thomas and Aby John, from an autorickshaw on the Kumbazha-Vadasserikkara road and assaulted them. The pastors and the auto driver, who were injured, were being treated at the district hospital.

He said those arrested were produced before the first class magistrate, who remanded them to 15 days' custody.

The chief minister said miscreants had looted the St Simon orthodox cathedral at Kumbazha on January 18 and attacked the cathedral the next day. The Pathanamthitta police had registered two cases, and a special squad had been constituted under the district superintendent of police to nab the culprits involved in the January 18 and 19 incidents.

UNI

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