by Nirmala Carvalho

A group of Hindu fundamentalists attacked a convent, beat two novices, and fled. The condemnation of the Church and of the minority commission: the government must do something for the Christians.

Bhopal (AsiaNews) - The government of Madhya Pradesh "has failed to follow the high court directive to provide security for the Christian community. This is very sad: if a change of course is not made soon, we will approach the court again". So comments Fr Anand Muttungal, spokesperson of the Catholic Church in the central state, on the attack on the convent of the Presentation sisters last May 15.

During the attack, about 30 Hindu fundamentalists broke down the doors of the convent - which houses a novitiate - in order to ransack it.  The sisters, who work with the poor of the village of Gondarmug, were threatened: two of them were even beaten, fortunately not seriously.  But the damage to the institute was significant, and there is little hope of compensation from the government.

Immediately afterward, the sisters went to the police, who arrested nine suspects.  This morning, the vice chairman of the National Minority Commission, Michael Pinto, visited the convent and spoke with the sisters.  According to the delegate, "the commission has presented to the government the criticisms highlighted by the Church.  We must make everyone understand that religion is not politics, and that violence is never justified".

• India
• Hindu
• fundamentalist
• attack
• Catholic
• Church
• sisters
• nuns
• missionaries
• violence
• religious
• discrimination