Pastor attack: Media under scanner

THE VICTIM: Pastor Walter Masih was brutally beaten up by miscreants at his house in Jaipur.

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Jaipur: Five people have been arrested in connection with the attack on a pastor in Jaipur on Sunday. Walter Masih was brutally beaten up at his house, allegedly by VHP and Bajrang Dal activists, right after the Sunday service, triggering off protests by students and Christian groups in the city.

While the identities of Masih's attackers have not been confirmed yet, the Jaipur police have made five arrests in the case. Police said more arrests are likely in the days to come. The police are also looking into the media's role in fuelling the attack.

Masih says he had been receiving threats from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal.

"I do not know who were they or where were they come from, but they could be people from the RSS, VHP or Bajrang Dal since they do not understand our campaign," Walter Masih says.

This wasn't the first attack on a missionary in Rajasthan. In February, 2005, two workers of the Emmanuel Mission were attacked in Kota. In December last year, there was tension in Kalinjara in Banswara after a conversion camp was attacked. And just last month, two missionaries were assaulted by Hindu fundamentalists in Sriganganagar.

The strain between Rajasthan's BJP Government and the minorities over alleged conversions has grabbed the headlines ever since the state Assembly passed the Anti-Conversion Bill. The police say that the latest assault in Jaipur was also because the suspects believed that Masih was indulging in religious conversions.

Christian groups have demanded a CBI probe into the matter, claiming that they don't trust the Rajasthan police.

Rajasthan police, meanwhile, say they are looking into the media's role as a possible facilitator of the incident as right from the time the attackers entered the pastor's house with their faces covered till the end of the violent assault, TV cameras were rolling at the site of the incident.