Delhi (AsiaNews) – Despite promises by the authorities and repeated appeals by local communities, anti-Christian violence continue unabated throughout India. Last Saturday a Catholic priest was forced to flee a village in Udaipur District in the northern state of Rajasthan, where he had been sent on a mission by the local bishop. A mob of Hindu extremists beat him up and threatened to kill him.

A few days earlier, always in northern India, people from the Hindu nationalist paramilitary group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the state of Himachal Pradesh shaved and tortured two Christian missionaries then forced them into the Ganges River as a token of their conversion to Hinduism.

As a sign of protest against the violence, increasingly ignored by local police and state authorities, Christian groups have organised a protest rally for tomorrow in Delhi. In announcing the initiative the promoters stressed that in just six months there were more than a hundred incidents of violence against innocent Christians. They added that previous appeals to the central and local governments and police leaders have had no result. For this reason the only way to be heard was to take to the streets and show one’s pain and anxiety over the situation.