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Pradeep Mallik in Ahmedabad
Another assault on Christians has been reported in Gujarat, barely days after normalcy was restored following communal clashes in Ahmedabad last week.
The All-India Christian Council alleged that 30 to 40 members of the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and some policemen beat up children and officials of a Madhya Pradesh orphanage run by missionaries, who had come to Dahod town on a picnic.
Dahod, bordering Madhya Pradesh, is about 205 km from Ahmedabad. Dahod district superintendent of police Anil Jadeja confirmed receiving a complaint.
Jadeja, however, said, "Only a group of four or five unidentified people abused and threatened them (the visitors) asking them to go back immediately."
"We are looking into the incident to ascertain the identity of those four or five people. The town is peaceful and no other incident has been reported," Jadeja said.
Alleging inaction on the part of the Gujarat police, the AICC has written to the National Human Rights Commission asking it to intervene.
AICC executive council member Samson Christian said 16 children and employees of an orphanage from Madhya Pradesh's Jobat village were going to the Kali dam picnic spot. They stopped at a market in Dahod to buy snacks.
"While the children were washing their faces at a hand pump in the market they were attacked by 25 to 30 people belonging to the VHP and Bajrang Dal. The group was led by Kishan Singh, a VHP leader," Christian said.
Christian alleged when the assaulted members approached a police station to lodge a complaint, station officer Baxilal Soni and another policeman on duty beat them up and asked them to leave the town within five minutes.
"The orphanage children and employees went back to Jobat and lodged a complaint there on August 25. The six injured were also admitted to a government hospital," he said.
The complaint was transferred to the Dahod police, but it has not arrested anyone so far, Christian said.
Gujarat witnessed a series of assaults on Christians a few years ago, prompting visits by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi.
Communal clashes have taken place in Ahmedabad over the last few days, with one person dying in police firing. The disturbed Dariyapur area of the city was under curfew for three days.
It was lifted on Monday.
Indo-Asian News Service
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