But 36 hours after a primary teacher found the prayer hall in flames and extinguished it with help from others, ordinary wisdom has not helped anyone explain what led arsonists to target Vad- about 70 kms from Surat- when South Gujarat which witnessed a series of religious conflicts recently was enjoying a relative peace.

No wonder, the administration's effort to play down the incident by rebuilding the prayer hall early on Wednesday before it was noticed by outsiders came a cropper when the Christian community refused to take part saying ``we are too frightened to do so. Unless we are provided adequate protection and the culprits brought to book we don't want the hall to be rebuilt. We will offer prayers under a tree.''

However, late in the evening, a State Government official said the rebuilding of the damaged prayer hall would be over by Thursday. The local Christian leaders were adamant on not participating in the process, but resident deputy collector V D Asari and CNI leader Fr Cecil David convinced them to allow the process to begin. Fr David said ``it was after much persuasion that they agreed to take part. The work will begin in the night and be over by morning.'' He, however, said that he apprehended more trouble in the area soon.

The minority community can't be faulted though. For they have spent days offering prayers under a neem tree, ever since communal hatred raised its head in the tiny village. In fact, this was the second attempt to destroy the hall.

Last year, a mob of over 100 villagers had stoned the hall when a small group of Christians was offering prayers. The Hindu villagers were cut up with the fact that the Christian tribals were still offering prayers when the town was mourning the death of a boy who was struck by lightning.

``A case was being made out against us. Many a time stones were pelted at the hall while prayers were being offered, '' says pastor Devsinhbhai Vasava. ``we have done it in the past. We will continue to offer prayers under tree, '' says a defiant Christian youth.

``The tension between the two communities has been simmering for a while when the converts refused to take part in village festivals and allegedly criticised Hindu gods, '' says sarpanch Navneet Chaudhary. The tension saw an assault on a Christian who was returning home after his prayers in August last and a Hindu Sant Sammelan on February 26-when 10 families reconverted to Hinduism after the minority community was verbally abused and the Bible belittled.

Chaudhary himself was accused of running a campaign of hatred against the minority community and was named in police complaints more than once. Chaudhary says ``given our number we can easily pull down the prayer hall, but we don't want to. It's all political and engineered by some outside elements.'' Chaudhary wonders how could Mangrol MLA Raman Chaudhary, who has defected to the Congress, got details of the incident at Gandhinagar before he did at Vad.

There are about 15 Christian families in the village having a population of more than 3,000. Chaudhary alleges the attacks on Christians followed when they ridiculed Hindu gods and started challenging traditions and customs followed in the village for centuries.

The two communities tried to blame ``outsiders'' for the latest arson attempt in the presence of government officials on Wednesday morning but broke into disagreement soon after and blamed each other for vitiating the peaceful atmosphere. The government officials were under instructions from District Collector Sangeeta Singh, who rushed to the village last night, to ensure that the damaged hall was rebuilt.