Tens of thousands of members of India's minority Christian community have taken part in protest rallies against what they say is a campaign of religiously motivated attacks by Hindu extremist groups.

Christian activists say there have been more than 90 such attacks this year alone and they say the national government led by the Hindu Nationalists BJP is not doing enough to stop the violence.

There are 23 million Christians in India in an estimated population of 970 million.

India's Christians rarely if ever take to the streets in protest or even as a political gesture.

But church leaders say they have never known such a period of religiously motivated violence.

They say Hindu extremists feel they can act with impunity now that the Hindu nationalist BJP leads the coalition government in Delhi.

BJP ministers say this simply is not true and they are taking action against anyone involved in religious or sectarian violence.

Allegations denied

The head of one of the extremist groups accused of attacking Christians, the VHP, or World Hindu Congress in the Hindi language, says his organisation is not involved in violence.

He accuses the Christians of trying to help the opposition Congress party at the expense of the BJP.

The main issue for the Hindu groups is conversion to Christianity by missionaries and in the many Christian schools around the country.