Sangh Parivar activists attack Christian missionaries : Third attack in past three months  

In a third attack in the past three months, Sangh Parivar activists allegedly attacked Christian missionaries in the 'safety' of a police station on the Independence day. Interestingly, instead of taking action against the attackers, the police detained five Christian leaders for nine hours. It was on the intervention of senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana and a talk with the Uttarakhand director general of police Subhash Joshi that the Christian leaders were released. It was the third alleged attack by Sangh Parivar activists including ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders on Christian community in Dehra Dun . Narrating the sequence of events of the latest attack, Gaushala Raju, principal of the Bible College being run in Rajinder Nagar area of the city, told The Tribune that four of the students were distributing pamphlets on the Independence day. They were attacked by a group of workers of the BJP. Three of them managed to escape while the fourth was caught. He was beaten badly and taken to the Garhi cantonement police station. "We were asked by a police party that reached Bible College to come to the police station.  

As soon as we reached the police station, more than thirty workers of Sangh Parivar pounced upon us and started beating us in the presence of policemen. Later, we were rescued and taken inside the police station and detained for nine hours," alleged Gaushala Raju. In a letter written to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj-Gen. B.C. Khanduri (retd) today, Suryakant Dhasmana demanded that action should be taken against the culprits. Meanwhile, police officers said it was a minor incident. "It was a minor thing blown out of proportion," Jagdish Lal, SHO of Garhi Cantonment police station told The Tribune. Vishwas Dabar, spokesperson of the Uttarakhand BJP, said he was unaware of the incident.

(Source: Tribune India , August 17, 2008)