Kathmandu, July 29 - A 40-year-old priest from India's Jharkhand state, teaching underprivileged children in Nepal for almost a decade, has been attacked by a group led by an expelled student.

Sanjay Ekka, who comes from Jaspur village in eastern India's mineral-rich Chhotanagpur plateau and belongs to the underprivileged Oraon tribe, joined the Society of Jesuits, the group of Catholic priests who have played a leading role in spreading education in India and Nepal, in 1994.

In 2000-01, he was sent to the border town of Bhadrapur in eastern Nepal to teach at the St Xavier's School there. Then after studying theosophy for nearly four years in New Delhi's Vidya Jyoti College run by Catholic priests, he was sent to northern Kathmandu.

Since December 2005, Ekka had been in charge of the Loyola Students Home in Baniyatar, a hostel for boys mostly from the Tamang community, who have been the worst victims of trafficking.

The problem started after the priest tried to discipline a teen, Minesh Tamang, who was said to be headstrong and hostile to authority.

After the teen was expelled Friday for playing hooky, he brought six more youngsters with him on Monday taking advantage of a power outage.

'They did not even speak,' the injured priest, his left hand heavily bandaged, told IANS lying on his hospital bed.

'They started attacking me. They were carrying knives and screw drivers.'

While six of the others wore masks, a defiant Minesh, the priest said, did not bother to cover up his face.

Ekka's left arm was slashed and he also received deep gashes on the hip. When his cries brought alarmed neighbours to the hostel, the gang fled.

However, the neighbours chased the fugitives and caught 13-year-old Suresh Tamang, who was subsequently handed over to police.