Christians attacked by RSS outfit in Chhattisgarh

At least a dozen people were injured when more than 200 workers of Dharmasena, a front outfit of the RSS, attacked a missionary camp in Dhamtari district, a Times of India report said Friday.

Raipur range IG Y K S Thakur said, "A resident of Dhamtari has been arrested. We are interrogating the accused." Late last year, Dharmasena activists blackened a pastor’s face and garlanded him with shoes.

There have been similar incidents in the past too. In September 2007, the Hindu activists had stopped four St Xavier’s School buses, asked the children to get off, sand then burnt the vehicles.

“Raipur’s Christians are unwilling to speak out against the Dharmasena as they fear any such "provocation" would adversely affect their educational and other service institutions,” the paper said.

When contacted, Dharmasena state unit Chief Kishore Kothari told TOI, "Our members weren’t involved. The villagers told us about the health camp when we were holding a meeting in the village. I told them that our activists can’t 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."