Mangalore church attacks: Victims share horrifying experiences

Those appearing before the Justice B.K. Somshekhara Commission shared many petrifying experiences of theirs during the attacks on prayers halls in Mangalore last year.

Pastor T.I Joy of Assemblies of God church in Nettana said it was a "war-like situation". He recounted that the Bajrang Dal men stormed into his church with wooden sticks and sharp weapons and then "threw out my two-and-half-year-old child Julia like any other object."

Refuting allegations of conversion, Pastor Joy said, he was a resident of Nettana for the past 12 years and there have never been attempts of conversion. "I even run a school that has 145 children mostly who are Hindus," he said, adding his sole aim was social service.

Several prayer halls and churches in Mangalore, Udupi, Chikkamagaluru, Kolar and other small districts of Karnataka were attacked by the Bajrang Dal last September.

According to the media, nuns were injured, prayer halls over 30 were ransacked and some twelve people including four pastors were seriously hurt during the mayhem.

Sister Sarita, principal of St. Joseph Higher Primary School at Kulashekara, told S.R. Raviprakash, legal adviser of the commission, that attacks disturbed the 'unity' among students in her school.

After the attacks, students started identifying themselves as Hindu, Christian and Bajrang Dal follower, causing a widening rift, she said.

Stany D'Souza of the Indian Prison Ministry said the attacks isolated him from his Hindu friends. He said that that he learnt a lot about his religion by listening to 'Harikathe' and 'Yakshagana.' "We too preach love and harmony, but we never insist that anyone convert to our religion," he defended.

Media quoted another witness Dorin Louis whose son an asthma patient was manhandled by the police. During the attacks by the Bajrang Dal, she said, her son was beaten up and also sustained injuries by the bursting of tear gas shells.

Another witness, Gunaeskhara, told the commission that the Bajrang Dal activists ransacked his home and beat his family. He also mentioned that he converted to Christianity due to evil practices and superstitious beliefs in his religion. "Nobody converted me and I never converted anyone," he added.

Earlier, last month, over eleven witnesses deposed before the commission and called for the ban of Bajrang Dal that indulged in arson and violence on several churches and clergy.

The investigation still continues and the commission has till date received some 981 affidavits, including 551 from Dakshina Kannada alone.

Bajrang Dal is a right-wing Hindu fundamentalist organization that is based on the ideology of Hindutva. It is also the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).