Same is the plight of Sister Manjula Tuscano, a missionary in her late 20s, who was part of Ramesh’s group. She was allegedly beaten up, robbed and chased by the assailants. The police did not visit her after the incident but she is now an accused as well. The Kwant police have also registered an FIR against her, along with the 18 others, for “being part of an assembly of more than five persons,” thereby violating prohibitory orders clamped in the wake of elections.

The small convent of Dominican Sisters situated in this tiny tribal taluka town will not celebrate Christmas this year. “How can we celebrate? One Brother has his fingers chopped off, a Father was so badly beaten up that we thought he was dead, many children are yet to recover from their injuries,” said Tuscano, a social worker with the convent.

When contacted, the SP of Vadodara, Amit Vishwakarma, told The Indian Express today: “Police officials lodged the FIR since these missionaries had not taken permission from district authorities for assembling more than a group of five people. It is a bailable offence and further probe is yet to be done.”

Asked about the assailants, Vishwakarma said: “According to the FIR lodged by the missionaries on Thursday evening, four attackers were recognised. However, they are still absconding. There were other people in the mob who could not be identified.”

The convent, as well as the Don Bosco school and hostel nearby, were provided armed police protection on Sunday evening after nuns and priests sent a written application to the police fearing danger to their life and property. While the convent houses 160 schoolgirls, mostly tribals, the school hostel has 165 tribal boys on its campus.

The incident took place on December 19 when a group of 20 Christian missionaries, including nuns, from Kwant, accompanied by school children of their hostels, visited Badiya, a neighbouring village, to enact a play to “educate tribals about their rights over water, land, forest, animals and their lives.”

According to the FIR filed by Monty Rodrigues, 52, head of Don Bosco School — he has been working with Gujarat tribals for over 25 years now — a group of activists attacked them alleging they were engaged in “conversion activity.” According to the FIR, they threatened them into abandoning the play, damaged their vehicles, beat up priests and tried to molest social workers and schoolgirls.

The FIR says that the assailants chased the group, bumped into one of their vehicles, which turned turtle, injuring several children. The attack also resulted in the amputation of four fingers of Ramesh’s right hand. Says Ramesh: “Bleeding and terrified, I had to run for several kilometres. I kept bleeding at the police station but they were not even ready to register our FIR for several hours.”

Two days after the incident, the president of Hindu Janjagaran Samiti, Yagnesh Patel, who happens to be deputy sarpanch of Kwant, submitted a memorandum to the state government authorities against the missionaries alleging they had gone to Badiya village for converting the tribals. “We are investigating the complaint,” says Kwant Mamlatdar Rushin Bhatt.

“It is a false accusation,” says Rodrigues, adding that the Don Bosco Education Society and the Dominican Sisters have been working for over 20 years in this tribal belt running a school and hostels for tribal boys and girls.