|PIC1|A Christian worker affiliated with Youth with a Mission (YWAM) in India was allegedly attacked by a group of Hindu fundamentalists believed to be members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council).

A local source reported to Washington-based International Christian Concern (ICC) that YWAM member Kamal Kanta was beaten up on Monday by at least four VHP supporters in the presence of his wife and two children while they were in Kullu, the capital town of the Kullu District in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. .

"Kanta, along with his family, was attending a prayer meeting in a believer's house when four unidentified people came to the house and asked him to come out. As he came out with them, they all began beating and abusing him, accusing him of conversions," said the source to ICC.

While the police have accepted the complaint, they had not yet registered it when ICC contacted them. "It was recorded in our diary; we did not register a first information report (FIR)," Constable Ved Ram told ICC over the phone.

Some observers point to reports published by Dainik Jagran, the local edition of a Hindi language daily, as being responsible for incidents such as the most recent on in Kullu.

For the past two year, Dainik Jagran has been publishing instigative stories maligning the local Christian community. Several reports alleged that Christians eat beef and forcibly convert Hindus.

The daily has also published a series of reports with the headline "Isaiyon ka gorakh dhanda" (Misdeeds of Christians) that contain a picture of a trishul (trident or three-pronged spear - one of the signs of a Hindu God) piercing the cross and stains of blood.

On Dec. 30, 2006, the ruling Congress party government in Himachal Pradesh was compelled by the Hindu fundamentalists to pass an anti-conversion bill. The bill was later approved by the state governor, but the rules have not yet been framed.

According to the census, Christians there comprise less than 0.1 percent of the total population.