Indian Nun in Hindu Rape Nightmare

"State police failed to stop the crimes, failed to protect me from the attackers. They were friendly with the attackers," said Barwa.

"They pulled out my sari and one of them stepped on my right hand and another on my left hand and then a third person raped me," said nun Meena Lalita Barwa, 29.

A mob of up to 50 Hindu men armed with sticks, axes and iron rods dragged the nun and a priest from a prayer hall in the eastern state of Orissa in August.

After gang-raping her, the mob paraded the Catholic nun half-naked through the streets.

"They had already torn away my blouse and undergarments," said Barwa, who broke down in tears several times while speaking to reporters in New Delhi.

"And they went on beating me with their hands on my cheeks and head and with sticks on my back."

At least 35 people were killed and nearly 50,000 fled their homes in weeks of anti-Christian attacks in Orissa after the murder of a Hindu priest.

Hindus have attacked dozens of churches, prayer halls and Catholic-run schools and burned down scores of Christian homes in the state, which is ruled by a political party allied to India's Hindu nationalist party.

Hardline Hindu groups accuse Christian missionaries of bribing poor tribes people and low-caste Hindus to convert to Christianity by offering free education and health care.

Catholic groups say Christians in the state are being forced to reconvert to Hinduism.

Accomplice

The Catholic nun accused the state police of complicity in the Hindu attacks against Christians.

"State police failed to stop the crimes, failed to protect me from the attackers," said Barwa, recalling begging for help when the Hindu mob passed a group of policemen, but they ignored her.

"They were friendly with the attackers."

The nun went into hiding after the attack to protect herself from Hindu extremists, but decided to come forward after the Supreme Court turned down a plea for a federal inquiry into the rape.

"I was raped and I don't want to be victimized by the Orissa police. God Bless India, God bless you all."

Christians make up less than 3 percent of India's 1.1 billion population.

"People have no faith in police," said human rights activist John Dayal told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

In 2002, at least 2,000 Muslims were hacked or burned to death by Hindu mobs in Gujarat after 59 Hindu pilgrims died in a train fire first blamed on Muslims but which a later inquiry concluded was accidental.

Recent videotapes showed the massacre was backed by Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi, recently reelected as chief minister of Gujarat, a post he has kept since 2002.