Kochi (AsiaNews/Ucan ) - Police in the southern Indian state of Kerala have arrested 12 Hindu activists for attacking Missionaries of Charity nuns and brothers.

Hindu groups alleged the police and the Church leaders are victimizing them. "There is some foul play going on," Rajasekharan Kummanam, organizing secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, world Hindu council), told. He alleged the Church has influenced the government to arrest innocent Hindus. "We will fight the case in a court of law," he said,.

On Sept. 26 about 35 people armed with iron rods attacked four nuns and three brothers at a village near Kozhikode. The assailants shouted pro-Hindu slogans. Some told the nuns to leave the village and, alleging the nuns converted Hindu villagers, demanded they stop this.

Northern Kerala region Police Inspector General Aravind Ranjan said all 12 arrested men are members of various Hindu-nationalist organizations such as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, national volunteers corps) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP, Indian people's party), considered its political arm. The BJP led the previous federal coalition government.

Ranjan said the arrested men have been charged with unlawful gathering, inciting communal violence, deliberate insult of women and attempted murder. He added that police were continuing to search for the other assailants.

Bishop Joseph Kalathiparambil of Calicut hailed the arrests, saying the Church "is happy that the police are on the job." He told  that the pro-Hindu groups want to create communal unrest in the country. He also said allegations that the Church people converted villagers have been proved false. "Not even a single villager there has been converted to Christianity," the bishop insisted.

BJP state president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai demanded that police show evidence implicating Hindu groups in the attack. "Arresting Hindus for any attack on the minority communities has become a fashion now. We will resist any such move to victimize the Hindu community," he told. Pillai also said he has a list of three families in the village who recently converted to Christianity. "We will submit it to the government," he said, but he admitted he does not know if the Missionaries of Charity nuns and brothers were involved in converting them.

Local superior of the Missionaries of Charity Sister Kusumam, who was among those attacked, said her community has not converted anyone in the village. "We serve the poor and the needy irrespective of religion and creed. We are not here to convert, but to feed the poor," she told.

Even so, the nun said she has "no ill feeling to grouse against" the attackers. "We have already forgiven them," she said, adding that the nuns did not complain to the police about the attack.

"Our mission is to serve the people and not to fight cases against those who attack us," Sister Kusumam declared.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad some years ago stated that the incidents of violence against the Christian missionaries are the result of 'anger of patriotic Hindu youth against anti-national forces'. Virtually justifying the attacks, the VHP has demanded that these missionaries be asked "to pack up and leave the country''.