ULLAL, India — Hindu nationalist extremists attacked Baswamma Sangappa, 44, in Ullal, Mangalore district, in Karnataka state Jan. 17 for converting to Christianity. After attending a prayer meeting in a village home, Sangappa made a phone call from a public telephone booth at a local shop. “The petty shop owner, who overheard her conversation, asked her name and whether she was a Hindu,” Donald Menezes, chairman of the Mangalore unit of the Karnataka Mission Network (KMN) said. “Baswamma told him that she had converted to Christianity 15 years ago. The shop owner then alerted a few people present there about her conversion, following which a group of extremists who were present beat her up.”
Police arriving at the scene also hit her with their batons and took her in, Menezes said. Sangappa was released only after local legislative assembly member U.T. Khader intervened. In a meeting with police Superintendent N. Satish Kumar, the KMN demanded that he take action against those responsible. Kumar ordered an inquiry into the incident, but at press time no arrests had been made.
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