February 25, 2013: In a shocking incident 10 Christian travelers were threatened, harassed and intimated to such an extent that they had to abandon travel.
10 Christians were en route from various locations in Chhattisgarh to Betul to attend a Christian seminar. They were aboard the Chhattisgarh express and the last one alighted the train from Dongargarh station.
The Christians were all scattered in different coaches according to their reservations and in one of the coaches identified now as the S2 coach, some RSS people were also travelling.
While speaking as fellow passengers the Christians let the people know the purpose of their visit and destination, unaware that the people they are disclosing this information to are Hindu Fundamentalists. They soon found out though when the RSS cadres began interrogating them as if they had committed a crime.
The RSS activists then called all the other RSS members, also scattered in different coaches, who incidentally were also travelling to Nagpur for a RSS meeting. The Christians were threatened, abused verbally with the choicest of bad words and asked where the rest of the Christians were. They were also manhandled. According to reports the RSS people abused the Christian faith too and made denigrating statements about the faith and beliefs of Christians.
The RSS cadres also made calls from their mobile phones to RSS activists in Wardha and Nagpur (both upcoming stations) and asked them to turn up at those stations to ‘take care’ of the Christians.
As per reports from a local Pastor in Rajnandgaon, 5 Christians escaped, when the train reached Gondia station. As this is being written, 5 Christians including four women are untraceable. It is not known whether the RSS activists have kidnapped them or they too have escaped.
