Agence France Presse
TRIVANDERUM, KERALA, September 26, 2004: Three nuns belonging to Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, were attacked by a group of Hindu activists in south Indian state of Kerala, an eyewitness and police said Sunday. According to the eyewitness, a group of 30-35 people surrounded the vehicles in which the sisters and a brother arrived Saturday in a low caste Hindu colony in Pantheerankavue, about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Kerala’s Cochin city. They smashed the windscreens and assaulted the occupants, Prabha, a resident of the colony, said. The group also shouted pro-Hindu slogans and accused the sisters of converting the local people, she added. However, residents of the colony strongly denied the accusations.
The sisters and a brother — a Kenyan national identified as Brother Bernard — were later released from a local hospital after getting treatment for their injuries which were not serious. Police said five persons were arrested and several detained in connection with the attack but refused to identify them though sources said they belong to Hindu rightwing groups. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, national volunteer corps) and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, world Hindu council) — India’s two frontline Hindu nationalist organizations — have denied any role in the attack. Kummanom Rajasekharan, who heads the Kerala chapter of the VHP demanded a government probe into the attack as did other Christian groups. At the headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity in eastern Calcutta city, a spokeswoman said the order was “seriously concerned” about the incident, adding that the attackers were reported to be drunk.
The Hindu newspaper said the nuns were on their way to distribute food when they were attacked by a group of young men wielding iron rods and shouting pro-BJP slogans. After hearing the news of the attack, another group of nuns arrived and some of the young men tried to pull them out of their vehicle, smashing the windshield, The Hindu said.