Click to play videoAlibag (Maharashtra): Last Saturday, over 100 followers of a Hindu Godman allegedly attacked two nuns in the seaside town of Alibag, just outside Mumbai.
Thirteen people have been arrested for the attack. But the area still remains tense as minority groups in the region are accusing the police of not taking adequate action against the communal elements in the region.
Meanwhile, after spending five days in the Alibag Civil Hospital, Sr Mercy – the victim – is now back at the St. Mary's convent where she lives. But the trauma refuses to leave her.
“I told them, ‘kill me, don't leave me half-dead, if you must, then kill me’,” she recalls, adding, “They pushed me against the wire, and hit me, then threw me to the ground,” she recalls, sobbing inconsolably.
Sr Mercy was one of the two nuns assaulted and sexually molested by the group.
They accused the nuns of converting Hindu tribals of the area to Christianity. But perhaps the best defence for Sr Mercy come from the tribals themselves - all of them Hindus - many of who tried to protect her as she was thrown against barbed wires and dragged through a gutter.
Locals say the nuns, who also run the popular school, have been involved with social work among the tribals for the last 13 years and are being unfairly targeted.
Says a tribal Lahani Naik, “In 13 years, these ladies have never mentioned religion.”
Minority groups are now accusing the state police of arresting only a handful of people from surrounding villages, on frivolous charges.
However, the police deny the accusation.
Says Alibag, Superintendent of Police, Pratap Dighavkar, “We have arrested 13 people in just an hour, and conducted extensive combing operations.”
But late on Wednesday evening – reportedly facing pressure from the Godman - the police filed an FIR against a tribal activist who was in the area to help the tribals who were also injured in Saturday's attack.
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