Vandals smashed a cross and scattered threatening leaflets outside a convent in India at the weekend, leaving nuns there shaken and fearing for their lives, a sister at the convent said on Monday. There have in recent years been occasional attacks on Christian missionaries in India by hard-line Hindus, who accuse Christians of converting poor, low-caste Hindus by luring them with money.
"Around two in the morning, we heard the sound of motorbikes outside the gate and then the sound of something being struck and broken," said the nun at the convent on the outskirts of Bombay. She did not wish to be identified.
A neon-lit cross mounted in the yard of the convent was smashed in the early Sunday attack. One of the leaflets, all signed 'Hindu', threatened the nuns with death if they did not leave the place immediately.
The Pushpa Sadan convent, run by three Catholic Teresian Carmalites, was set up in the northern Bombay suburb of Ambernath three years ago. It also runs a home for old people.
The nuns reported the attack to the police and handed over the leaflets, which bore slogans such as 'run away we will come back' and 'next time it could be your head'.
Police had yet to determine the identify or motive of the attackers, one policeman said.
Christians account for about 2 percent of India's more than 1 billion people.
India's religious conflicts usually stem from tension between minority Muslims and members of the Hindu majority, though there have been attacks on Christians and some have been killed.
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