According to reports, Fr Joseph Vayali was accosted near Kadana and his jeep pelted with stones on Saturday while he was returning from a prayer service. Fr Joseph later lodged a police complaint about the incident.

Meanwhile, the Christian community in Dahod has alleged that the disruption of a prayer meeting last week by Hindu organisations was pre-planned and took place in the presence of the local police.

``Instead of preventing the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists from barging into the Railway Institute Hall, the police arrested four Christians on charges of forcible conversion on the basis of their statements'', community leaders said.

``Only 110 registered Christians attended the meeting. So where was the question of conversion?'', asked Joy Punnoose, pastor of the PhiladelphiaFellowship Church. ``The United Christian prayer meeting was meant only for the community. Though we are feeling helpless, we will move court to challenge the charges against us. We are feeling scared. We have stopped sending our children to schools on their own.''

Four Christians, including Punnoose, were arrested under Sections 153 and 295 of the IPC after, according to the pastor, `` a group of VHP-BD activists stormed into the meeting, snatched away copies of the Bible and started assaulting participants.'' All four were later released on bail.

Dy SP Dahod Raval, however, said the police had enough evidence against the priest. ``The police recorded statements of those attending the meeting and made the arrests later,'' he claimed.

According to Dahod VHP general secretary Dipen Sisodia, ``We had inside information something was going on. We sent two volunteers to attend the meeting; they came back to say that people were being urged to convert through denigration of Hinduism.''

According toReverend Stanislaus Fernandes, Bishop of Ahmedabad Diocese, this was not the only incident of its kind. ``The Catholic Church at Jhalod took about 60 schoolchildren to a circus and picnic in nearby Dahod town last weekend. When they came to the bus station to return to Jhalod, two persons posing as journalists came to the priest and began asking questions about where the children came from and how come he was accompanying them'', he said.

``Soon a crowed gathered, and the priest and the children were forced to go to the local police station to explain things. The children were extremely scared, and one even ran away.''