Raipur: After Orissa, there are now reports of another attack on Christians. The latest one has taken place in Chhattisgarh's Dhamtaree district.

Workers from a Hindu organisation going by the name of Dharamsena, a front outfit of  Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) attacked a health camp being conducted by Christian missionaries. The attack left at least a dozen people seriously injured.

About 500 people were participating in the camp. The attackers burnt vehicles and other equipment at the camp and hounded out the participants, accusing them of participating in conversions.

Dharamsena denies role

When contacted, Dharmasena state unit chief Kishore Kothari said, "Our members were not involved. The villagers told us about the health camp when we were holding a meeting in the village. I told them that our activists cannot intervene in such cases."

Kothari then added, "I later learnt that the villagers themselves attacked the health camp. The missionaries are fooling innocent people on the pretext of curing them of their ailments. The government should immediately ban such camps since these promote religious conversions."

Raipur Range IG YKS Thakur said, "A resident of Dhamtari has been arrested. We are interrogating the accused." Last year, Dharmasena activists blackened a pastor’s face and garlanded him with shoes. In September 2007, the Hindu activists had stopped four St Xavier’s School buses, asked the children to get off, and then burnt the vehicles. In April 2007, an American resident of Raipur was assaulted on mere suspicion that he was involved in missionary activity. He was merely married to a woman from Raipur and had nothing to do with conversion. Raipur’s Christians are unwilling to speak out against Dharmasena as they fear any such "provocation" would adversely affect their educational and other service institutions.

Meanwhile, the National Commission of Minorities has accused the Orissa government of being "negligent" in dealing with the recent violence against the Christians. "The government and local officials had been warned of trouble as early as on 22 December 2007. But they did not take any action," said a member of the NCM delegation. 

(Source: The Times of India dated 18 January 2008)