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| Kusamam at the hospital in Kozhikode on Saturday. (AFP) |
Thiruvananthapuram, Sept. 26: The sisters of the Missionaries of Charity who were attacked by alleged pro-Hindutva activists yesterday in the northern district of Kozhikode have opted against lodging a complaint with police, saying ?our religion does not teach us to take revenge?.
Nine volunteers, including four sisters, were injured in two attacks. There is no clue on the identity of the assailants, though the police have rounded up 14 people with criminal backgrounds.
Left supporters organised protests, including burning the effigy of chief minister Oommen Chandy, accusing the Congress of ?failing to protect minorities?, while different Christian denominations offered special prayers during Sunday services in hundreds of churches across Kerala.
Mother Superior Kusamam, who heads the Charity?s Sneha Bhavan, said: ?Our religion does not teach us to take revenge. Of course, we take a different sort of revenge by re-dedicating ourselves in the service of the poor and afflicted.?
Kusamam denied charges of conversions. ?There are Christians, Muslims and Hindus among the 53-odd women sheltered at Sneha Bhavan. Ask them whether we had tried to convert any of them? We have a driver, a Hindu, who has been with us for six years. Let him say whether we had tried to convert him. The driver was among those injured in the attack.?
Seven of those injured were discharged from the Malabar Institute of Medical Sciences today. Three ministers called on the victims as did prominent women leaders of the CPM.
However, no Sangh parivar leader visited the injured. The BJP Kerala chief, P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, alleged the CPM was playing a double game, claiming that the first assailants had emerged from a local arts club under the Marxist party?s control.
Pillai wanted a probe into all aspects of the attack, including the presence of the Kenyan national, Brother Bernard, who is on a tourist visa. A team led by assistant commissioner Abubacker Chakkeeri has been entrusted with the probe.
