(UCAN) -- Church people joined tribal leaders to condemn the rape of tribal women inside a police station in Jharkhand state, eastern India.

On Feb. 3, the state's administration arrested a policeman after tribal people threatened to mete out bithlaha on the accused, referring to an extreme form of ostracism in the Santal tribal penal system. Under this form of punishment, the guilty is driven from the community and his property destroyed.

Two days earlier, more than 25,000 tribal people from the state's major towns surrounded the police station in Sunderpahari, a village in Godda district. They alleged the station officer and another policeman raped three women from the Mal Paharia tribe on the nights of Jan. 11 and 12.

The police arrested the women on Jan. 10 in connection with the murder of a tribal man. Devendra Paharia, who heads the Mal Paharia tribe, said the police acted under the conviction that torture and rape would break the women down easily as tribal women value their chastity. He alleged the policemen cut the women's sexual organs and made them drink urine.

Hemlal Murmu, a Santal who represents the region in parliament, told UCA News Feb. 5 the arrest has not satisfied the tribal people. The police "brutality on the innocent women of a small primitive tribe" has shaken everyone in the state, he added.

Paharia said the incident has made "the entire tribal community angry and restive." The support from the region's major tribes has emboldened his numerically small tribe to fight for justice, he added.

Most of the Feb. 1 demonstrators were Santal, who dominate the region. Other tribes such as Kharia, Munda and Oraon also joined the protest.

Several Church people condemned the alleged incident. Father Peter Raposo, spokesperson of Ranchi archdiocese, termed as "ironic" that poor tribal people suffer such "barbaric" acts in a state ruled by their own people.

A coalition led by a tribal chief minister rules the state now. "If this government cannot protect the tribal people and give them justice, then who will?" asked Father Raposo, speaking with UCA News in Ranchi, the state capital, 1,160 kilometers southeast of New Delhi.

Sunderpahari is 20 kilometers east of Godda, which is 335 kilometers northeast of Ranchi.

Father Raposo warned that the tribal people will "take law into their hands" if they experience "persistent and gross injustice."

Bishop P.D.S. Tirkey of the North-West Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church condemned the alleged police "brutality" and said he hopes "our tribal women get justice without delay."

Another Catholic priest, Father C.R. Prabhu of the All Religion Forum Ranchi, said the call for bithlaha on the erring policemen has not surprised people in the state. The rape and torture of the tribal women "are unbearable for society," he declared.

Chief Minister Madhu Koda told UCA News Feb. 1 that the rape was "a very unpleasant incident" and promised not to spare the culprits.

At the Feb. 1 demonstration, Murmu announced that the tribes would declare bithlaha on the erring policemen if the administration failed to arrest them before Feb. 4.

Paharia said that the tribal youths would kill the policemen if bithlaha is declared against them.

Biglal Oraon, who heads the police in Godda district, told media on Feb. 4 the police have arrested one policeman and launched a search for the accused station officer, who has gone missing.