AMRITSAR, India -- Alleged Sikh militants have begun attacking the small Christian community in troubled Punjab state, molesting nuns and damaging churches, state officials and sect leaders said Monday.
The most recent and brutal attack occurred Friday when a gang of six men armed with iron rods damaged sacred vessels and molested two nuns and a maid in a church in the small town of Baddalthua, Bishop Gilbert Rego said.
One nun suffered severe head injuries and was hospitalized in New Delhi in serious condition, Rego said. The second nun and the maid also were admitted to the hospital, he said.
A church in Amritsar, Punjab's holy city and seat of the historic Golden Temple, was attacked and its nuns molested in an earlier incident.
Rego, who is based in Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana states, said he believed the attacks were intended to help rid the area of Christians.
Similar attacks on Punjab's Hindu minority over the past decade resulted in a mass exodus of Hindus from the Sikh-dominated countryside to cities inside and outside the state.
Beant Singh, the chief minister of Punjab, assured the state's minority Christian community that the government would protect it.
One of India's most prestigious news magazines, India Today, last month reported alleged cases of Sikh village women in Punjab being abducted and raped by Sikh militants. Many were forced to marry their assailants, it said.
Police in Punjab on Monday arrested Pargat Singh, a prominent Sikh militant allegedly responsible for some 60 killings and 10 cases of kidnapping and extortion.
