[1][2][3][4][5] The attacks reportedly started at the end of 1997, before peaking during the Christmas of 1998 after the anti-Christian rallies in the Dangs District by the Hindu Jagaran Manch.
[3][10][11][12][13][14] The Human Rights Watch reported that the majority of incidents of violence occurred in 1998, the same year that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took control of the state.
This was followed by a series of anti-Christian rallies in all districts of southern Gujarat by Bajrang Dal, VHP and Hindu Jagran Manch which continued for months.
[2][25] The Human Rights Watch noted that a majority of the incidents of violence in 1998, the same year that the Bharatiya Janata Party took control of the state.
[19] On 25 December, more than 4000 people actively participated in the rally mostly HJM activists from outside Ahwa, they shouted anti-Christian slogans in-front of the watching police.
[29][19] The rally climaxed at about 5 pm at a local school ground where another round of hate speeches openly calling for violence against the Christians were going on.
The other group which was a mob of about 120 went to the Dheep Darshan high school and pelted stones which damaged the window panes and the roof of the boys' hostel.
On the night of 25 December, the rally participants began destroying churches and prayer halls and attacking Christians at the villages surrounding the Ahwa town and some were forcibly taken to the Unai hot springs for a re-conversion ritual.
[46][47] On December 26, a mob of 500 armed with tridents, iron bars and heavy-sticks set fire to a church on Waki,[48] a tribal Christian and his family members were assaulted in Galkund.
[47] Together there were at least 20 incidents of church and prayer halls being burnt down and damaged in and around the Dang district from December 25, 1998, to January 3, 1999, as reported by the Human Rights Watch.
[51][22] The Organization accused the local media in propagating inflammatory news against Christians and exploiting communal differences to meet Political ends.
There was some commotion.An erstwhile Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member, Vijay Moray, told Human Rights Watch that the Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM) and Swami Aseemanand went to 311 villages in the Dangs district to spread propaganda and the Hindutva groups have been devising this campaign in south-eastern Gujarat for years.
[25][55] The Communanlism Combat reported that, even though several Christian organisations and NGOs had warned the district collector Bharat Joshi and deputy superintendent of police Rajan Gaikwad to not allow the rally on the day of Christmas as it could end in trouble due to the church burnings in the past month.
[56] The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said that the violence against the minorities is coincided with the rise of the Political parties affiliated to the Sangh Parivar.
It also reported that the rise of the Bhartiya Janata party in 1998 has helped encouraged a climate for the extremists who have started to believe that violence against the religious minorities will not be punished systematically.
[22] The former President of the AIADMK and Chief minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalaitha called for the dismissal of the Bharatiya Janata Party's rule in Gujarat.
[56] Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited the Dangs district on 10 January 1999 and criticized the Gujarati government for failing to ban the rally on Christmas Day.
[60] Telugu Desam Party's leader V. S Rao said the home ministry acts like a "passive onlooker" when Christians were being attacked in Gujarat for the past three months.
Anand Muttungal of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Madhya Pradesh said the attacks could be a response to increased and favorable coverage of Christians and Churches in television channels and newspapers during the Christmas season.