_WORLD WATCH______________________________
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Sentenced for rape
Armed men ransacked convent
An Indian court has sentenced 17 people to life in prison for the rape of four nuns in 1998. Seven other defendants were acquitted when their involvement could not be proved.
More than 20 armed men stormed a clinic and school run by the nuns in central India on September 23, 1998 and raped the four nuns. They also ransacked the school.
Christians have been subject to numerous attacks by extremist Hindu groups who charge them with tricking lower-caste tribal peoples into converting to Christianity. Christian missionaries run about 10,000 schools and health-care centers across the country. Christians make up less than two percent of India’s 1 billion people; Hindus comprise 82 percent.