A 74-year-old nun was attacked by six men during a burglary at the Convent of Jesus and Mary, which was attached to a school in eastern West Bengal.

The woman is in a stable condition in a hospital near Calcutta.

Prayers for her are being said in churches throughout India.

The Archbishop of Calcutta, Thomas d'Souza, told the BBC that there are only three sisters in the community.

"One sister was molested badly. The other two, and a guard, were tied to chairs."

The men also stole money from the school, he said, vandalised the chapel, broke open the tabernacle and took away a ciborium.

"They not only committed a heinous crime, but they also vandalised the chapel . . . This is the first time such an attack has happened in India," he said.

Eight men have been detained by police and there are reports that four of the six attackers have been identified through CCTV footage.

A reward of 100,000 rupees is on offer for any leads on the suspects.

The attack has fuelled fears among beleaguered Christians in the country.

Christian groups have recently held protests in the capital, Delhi, saying they are being targeted and demanding better protection.

A spate of attacks on churches prompted the Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, to promise a crackdown on religious violence.

Mr Modi had been heavily criticised for not speaking out earlier against religious violence.

He has also faced flak for remaining silent about a spate of mass "re-conversions" of Christians and Muslims to Hinduism.

The 2012 gang rape of a student led to a major reform of India's rape laws, speeding up trials and increasing penalties.

But many campaigners say little has changed for women.

Sources

• BBC
• The Guardian
• Image: New York Daily News

The victim, who is attending university in Chennai (formerly Madras), the capital of Tamil Nadu state, told police she received a phone call from a woman, who reported that her mother in Orissa was very sick.

On July 5, she took a train to Bamunigam. At the railway station she was met by several cousins and neighbors, who said they would take her to her home.

Instead they carried her to an isolated location, held her for several days, and repeatedly assaulted her. They eventually returned her to the train station on July 11.

The assailants ordered the nun not to tell anyone about what had happened, but on July 13 she filed charges with the police.

A statement from Bishop Thomas Thiruthalil, Bishop of Balasore and president of the Episcopal Conference in Orissa, called on the government to protect Christians from such attacks.

"Violence still strikes Christians in Orissa," he said. "Very often those responsible are Hindu fundamentalist groups who do not look kindly upon Christians. As a Church we are insisting with the government to ensure the safety and security of Christian faith citizens."

However, police arrested three Catholic siblings — two brothers and a sister — who are cousins of the victim, and charged them with the rapes.

Church officials said the case results from a long-standing family feud. The father of the three accused was killed last year, apparently by Maoist guerrillas, and his children accused the nun's family of being involved.

Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttuck-Bhubaneswar archdiocese said the incident was in "no way" linked to religious persecution or the anti-Christian violence that hit the state some five years ago.

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, said the fact that the attack was meticulously planned "heightens the gravity of the deplorable and utterly reprehensible crime".

Sources:

AsiaNews

Vatican News

Patheos

Image: USA-UK Online