|TOP|Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, severely condemned persecution against Christians in India, as two Christian women were gang-raped in the village of Madhya Pradesh, India.

CSW’s National Director, Stuart Windsor, said: “We strongly condemn this appalling attack against vulnerable Christian women, and our deepest sympathy goes to the victims. The pattern of violent attacks against Christians in Madhya Pradesh is a matter of grave concern. We call on the authorities to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice and that the Christian minority across the state is protected from further assaults.”

The attacks followed the council of a neighbouring village who attempted to force Gokharya Barela, the husband of one of the victims, to renounce his faith, and warned him to leave the village. According to a report by Compass Direct, the head of the Sirvil village council, Pandya Patel, then told villagers that they could rape the Christian women in the village, claiming that nobody would save them.|AD|

Indeed, five Hindu men dragged the wives of two Christians out of their homes at 10pm on 28 May, and raped them. As the women’s husbands tried to intervene, they were brutally beaten. Pastor Kailash Davar of Khargone described the attack as unprovoked.

Although police are believed to be investigating the attack, nobody is known to have been arrested yet.

According to Dr John Dayal, Secretary General of CSW partners the All India Christian Council and a member of the government’s National Integration Council, this attack “has to be seen both in terms of the religious intolerance of the Sangh Parivar and in the pattern of violence against women, the most vulnerable section of our society. On both counts, it must be condemned in the strongest of terms”.

The attack is the latest example of the widespread and violent persecution of the Christian minority in Madhya Pradesh, which has continued unabated throughout 2006.