10 Christians were attacked and beaten mercilessly by a mob of 200
plus people in village Sirsiguda, Bastar District in Chhattisgarh state of
India on 16th June 2014.
The village has a long track record of discrimination against
Christians and the attack was a retaliation to the complaint raised by the
Christian community to that effect.
Eight men and two women, mostly from the Believers Church were
beaten up including the Pastor, Ramdhar Mandavi. The beating was so severe that
all of the Christians had to seek urgent medical help. One Christian Aitu
Mandavi is still admitted in the nearby Jagdalpur hospital with serious
injuries in the back and the head.
For some months the Christians in the village (50 plus families) had
been denied ration from the government ration shop at the orders of the
Sarpanch (Village council head). The Christians then approached the district
food inspector and asked him to intervene and according to reports received, he
and his colleague did speak to the village head and to the other villagers,
which caused anger and a backlash against Christians. The food inspector and his colleague were
chased away from the village and the fundamentalist Hindus registered a false
complaint in the local police station of Badanji, accusing Christians of
beating up Hindus. The beating of the Christians followed this accusation and
the ten were seriously injured.
The Christians had to wait for hours together before their complaint
was entertained in the local police station on 18th June 2014. Even
medical facilities were denied initially to the injured Christians.
“At the moment one Christian, Aitu Mandavi, is still admitted in the
hospital while the rest have been discharged even without proper treatment,”
said a local Christian leader while speaking to us.
It is reported that the women were also misbehaved with and beaten up.
The pew research forum in its report on religious hostility ranks
India on very top as far as social restrictions to religion is concerned and
this is a stark example of that fact, where social restriction and backlash is
provided protection and sanction by the authorities (in this case the village council
head).
