Violent mob forces Christian families to flee village in northern India

A hard-line Hindu mob hit and ridiculed Vikas Gupta, a 21-year-old Christian youth, as he was paraded through a village market in a remote part of India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh on July 2.

Gupta told LiCAS.news that before the mob allowed him to go home, he was dragged inside a Hindu temple where he was forced to bow in front of an idol. The mob also damaged his motorbike.

The next day another mob barged into his home situated in a remote village in Azamgarh district. The mob ransacked his house; threatened his family and two other Christian families that if they did not leave the village the women would be raped, the men murdered, and their houses set on fire.

After the mob left, the families sought the police for help.

“The police were initially reluctant to act against the attackers,” said Gupta. “When we insisted, they took into custody two men from the mob and they started investigating the case,” he said.

But in response another mob — this time led by a village head — gathered outside the local police station and demanded the release of the two arrested men. The village head warned police of consequences if the men weren’t released.

“The police buckled under pressure and released those it had arrested earlier,” Gupta said.

“People’s wrath against us only grew after they saw their men getting freed. They targeted us again and this time with greater severity,” he said.

“When we saw no other option, we fled from the village, leaving behind our houses, household and livestock. We have now become like refugees,” he said.

The district where this occurred Azamgarg has a population of 4 million plus people of whom 84 percent are Hindus and 15 percent Muslims while Christians comprise .08 percent.

Patsy David, from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a non-profit organization working for the Christian rights, told LiCAS.news that the targeted families — 15 people in total — had recently moved to the area and began holding prayer services in their houses which attracted the attention of a few locals.

“There is a community called Raj Bhars living in the village and a few people from this community got inspired from the message of Christ and began attending the prayer services out of curiosity,” David said. “This angered the village locals who accused the Christian families of forcefully converting people there,” David said.

Sneta Moria, one of the Christian women threatened by the mob, said that the village head, along with other local Hindus, didn’t want the Christian families settling in the village and wanted the local administration to force them out.

“The people here do not want us to live here peacefully. The local government officials seem too helpless before such a large crowd,” Moria said.

Minakshi Singh, general secretary of Unity in Christ, told LiCAS.news that she has taken up the issue with the local police. “We have been assured police action against the culprits. We hope justice will be done for the families who have been attacked and their homes destroyed,” she said.

Mobs of hard-line Hindu mobs — mostly in remote villages — often target Christians, accusing them of forcefully converting local Hindus to Christianity, allegations which Christian groups reject.

Open Doors, a non-profit organization supporting persecuted Christians worldwide, said in its most recent report that India as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for Christians who make up 2.5 percent of the country’s 1.3 billion people.

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20 Indian Christians hurt in attack on prayer meeting in Uttar Pradesh

Twenty Christians have been injured in an assault on a prayer meeting in India's Uttar Pradesh state, according to International Christian Concern.

Local reports say 35 Hindu radicals stormed a prayer meeting in Raikashipur village as more than 150 Christians met for prayer.

The attack took place on July 2, according to ICC, when the mob arrived at the prayer meeting in several vehicles and beat the participants with sticks. They also fired a gun into the air.

As well as injuring people they destroyed furniture and musical instruments.

Ram Kumar Gautam (42) has led the village prayer meetings in a makeshift shed for the last five years and told ICC that on average around 300 people participate.

'I didn't sleep or eat properly for nearly a week now,' he said. 'The attack on our prayer meeting last Monday has had devastating consequences. Many have serious injuries with their limbs being broken. Also, a false case was booked against six of us under stringent IPC [Indian Penal Code] sections.'

The charges relate to riot and assault, and to 'Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.'

Gautam said: 'We peacefully conduct prayers every Monday and people voluntarily attend these prayers. We don't even talk about conversions, but I am accused of converting people. People come to our prayer and get healing. That's why people choose to regularly attend the prayers.'

William Stark, ICC's regional manager, said: 'Article 25 of India's constitution says that every individual has the right to freely profess, practise and propagate the religion of their choice. For more than 150 Christians, this right was violated last Monday when Hindu radicals assaulted them for merely practising their faith.

'India's authorities must bring these 35 Hindu radicals in Raikashipur to justice. Until then, India's religious freedom rights will remain only words on paper and attacks on Christians and other religious minorities will continue to rise in both number and severity.'

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Christian Families Get Beaten and Were Denied Water in India

Christian families were beaten by villagers, forced to take part in Hindu rituals and had the water for their crops cut off in the latest horrifying persecution in India. The families that were targeted in the attack are from Jalalabad village, Ghazipur District in the northern state of Utter Pradesh.

The incident happened on April 25 when a mob led by the village president and his advisers beat up a group of Christians with sticks. Pushpa Kumari, one of the victims, said the mob forced them to eat basil leaves and drink water from the Ganges River that was considered holy.

They were also made to deny Christ. At least 13 young Christians caved in to pressure and reconverted back to Hinduism. The four couples who refused were beaten up. Their water supply was also cut off, leaving their crops exposed to temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius.

During a confrontation at the police station, the victims were accused of forcibly converting Hindus to Christianity. One of the victims, Manoj Kumar, denied this, saying the Christians just gathered at his house on Sundays as they were unable to go to town for worship.

An amicable settlement was reached that both sides will follow their own respective religious practices peacefully, and no charges were filed. But the water problem wasn't settled. Villagers still refused to sell water from their boreholes, and the Christians' crops were left to die.

"We are ready to pay the hourly price, but the president and villagers have decided to not let us irrigate. Our field is going dry; it's burned dead," Kumar said. Last June 14, Gupta told the Christians if they want water, they have to stop following Christ and holding their worship services.

The oppression against Christians has long been common in India. In 2014, it ranked 28th on the Open Doors World Watch List of Countries where Christians faced the worst persecution. The persecutions enormously increased since then and the country is now ranked 15th.

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Christians beaten up in Kondagaon

9 Christians were beaten up by fundamentalists at Kondagaon, Chhattisgarh on 23rd June 2017.

The villagers, under the influence of Hindu fundamentalists had accused the Christians of practising witchcraft. The beaten up Christians included women.

Christians were also told that they must abandon their Christian faith or else they will be killed.

Christians severely beaten by large group of Hindu extremists in India

Three Christians were severely beaten by more than 50 suspected extremists in the state of Chhattisgarh in India.

On July 17, a large group of suspected extremists assaulted student Umesh Patel, his father Sudhama Patel, and family friend Kiran Vishwakarma. Sources say they were attacked because they were practicing their Christian faith, UCA News relays.

A group of Hindus was questioning Umesh about his faith. After the incident, the three Christians were attacked in Kamarud village, leaving them in critical condition in the hospital. The assailants also trashed their house.

Persecution Relief's head of India operations Tomson Thomas believes the mob attack was part of Hindu extremists' bid to eliminate Christianity from the country. He told UCA that they have been getting reports about Christian villagers from various areas being attacked every day.

Last month, Hindu hardliners beat up 29 Christians from the village of Katholi who refused to renounce their faith and convert to Hinduism. As in the case of the Patels, the attackers also vandalized the homes of their victims, The Express details.

Women and children were among those who were beaten by the extremists. The attack left six people seriously injured, and they had to travel several miles just to get help.

The attack also caused the Christians to flee from their homes and report the incident to the police, who ordered the extremists to stop what they were doing. Authorities asked them to return to their homes, but they were once again forced to leave after they received death threats from their neighbors.

The Indian government has been accused of ignoring the pleas for help from Christians. The Hindu nationalist group Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the current government, has been slammed for allegedly turning a blind eye on the violence against religious minorities.

In response to the said attacks, Human Rights Watch's South Asia Director Meenakshi Ganguly expressed concern over the increasing number of vigilante activities in the country. He then urged the prime minister and the leaders of the BJP to act on the issue and bring the perpetrators to justice.

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Police in India Threaten to Fine Christians Attacked by Hindu Extremists

A month after a crowd of village Hindus in Jharkhand state, India summoned 25 Christians, tied up six of them and beat them with sticks, some of the assailants ran into one of the Christians and asked if he was still worshipping Christ.

The Hindu extremists in Hunter village, Palamu District came across Gunni Bhuiya on June 14 on an area road. Bhuiya told them he still believed in and worshipped Christ, and the Hindu extremists manhandled him and threatened to kill him, Christian leaders said.

“They told Bhuiya that as the Christians are still worshipping Christ even after they had received severe beatings, they were now going to kill them,” area pastor Sanjay Kumar Ravi told Morning Star News.

Area Christians are living in fear as the Hindu extremist forbid them to worship, boycott them economically and threaten to kill them, while police threatened to fine them if they continued worshipping publicly, the leaders said.

Hindu extremists led by Dilip Chandra, Ram Chandra Vanshi and Dil Narayan Yadav on May 8 summoned the 25 Christians from six families to a public meeting, forcing them into vehicles and taking them to a middle school on the outskirts of the village.

“About 100 people from three neighboring villages were waiting when we reached the place and started to tell us that it is wrong for us to pray to Jesus and that we should follow Hinduism and perform puja (Hindu rituals) to the idols only,” Pastor Ravi said.

The Christians refused. Rather, Pastor Ravi began sharing his testimony with the crowd, saying Christ had healed him from an illness in 2007, and that he has followed Him since then.

“The pastor’s testimony enraged the crowd more,” the Rev. Akash Nandi, an area Christian leader, told Morning Star News, “and they started to beat him and the other five Christian men while they shouted that they should renounce Christ or else they will kill them. They told them to chant, ‘Jai Shri Ram [Hail Lord Ram],’ perform the puja and worship the idols there and then.”

When the Christians refused, the furious Hindu extremists threatened to kill and bury them.

“They shouted to each other to bring kerosene oil so that they could burn us all,” Pastor Ravi said.

Nandi said the Christians told them, “Do whatever you like, we are not going to leave Christ at any cost.”

The extremists then tied the hands and the legs of six Christian men and punched, kicked, slapped and beat them up with sticks, the leaders said. The assailants then hung them upside down, took them down and beat them again.

As the abuse went for about half an hour, a 5-year-old child, Eraj Ram, begged the assailants to stop beating his father, Naresh Ram.

“He folded his hands and begged them to stop beating his father, however, the extremists caught him by the collar and threw him aside,” Pastor Ravi said.

Shouting that they should not worship Christ anymore, the extremists then pushed the Christian men to the ground and stomped on them, the Christian leaders said.

All six men were bleeding from their mouths, Naresh Ram’s hands were broken and Pastor Ravi sustained an internal injury that left him with severe chest pain, along with cuts on his hands and abrasions over much of his body. Four other unidentified Christians suffered cuts and wounds on their mouths, eyes, hands and legs.

“The extremists threatened to tie up the women as well while they mocked and hurled all sorts of vulgar abuse at them,” Pastor Ravi said.

The assailants told the Christians to leave the village or else they would shave them, burn them and set their houses on fire, he said. The Christians managed to return to their homes and left the village at dawn the next day. At Ramgarh village, they received medical treatment from a local doctor.

Later that morning, the Christians went to Ramgarh police station to report the attack to police, but officers declined to register a case, and on May 10 they summoned the assailants to the police station. About 50 of the Hindus showed up to meet with three area Christian leaders among the 25 Christians who arrived at the station. Police forced the Christians to sign a statement that they would worship only in their homes or else be fined 10,000 rupees (US$150), along with other possible punishments.

“We were forced to sign the bond, we have no other choice as we have nowhere else to stay except in the village,” Pastor Ravi said.

The Christians, impoverished “untouchable” Dalits, lost some benefits when the village head came under pressure from the Hindu extremists to exclude them. The Hindu extremists also ensured that the Christians were denied rice, wheat, sugar and other goods at subsidized rates.

“Our names were also cut off from the list where houses were allotted to the villagers by the state authorities,” Pastor Ravi said.

Likewise, on June 10 the Hindu extremists threatened Dharaya Singh and his wife Sumitra Singh, saying they would keep them from plowing their land and drive them from the village if they continued to worship Christ.

“We can only pray in our homes with our respective family, our movements are closely watched and the extremists told us to leave Christ and threatened to beat us up at every opportunity they could find,” Pastor Ravi said.

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Rising persecution in Punjab, India, alarms Christian community

On Wednesday 25 May, in the city of Jalandhar in India’s Punjab state, a Christian was severely beaten by eight Hindu extremists after he protested against Hindu desecration of a Christian graveyard. Even though a complaint was registered with the police on the day of incident, a First Information Report (FIR) was not registered until Monday 13 June.

Anoop Masih cannot afford the surgery and is fearful of malpractice because of the influence of local Hindu extremists over doctors in the area
Masih continues, “They hit me all over my body with many blows using their fists and legs, and then started to hit me in my private parts. One of them was wearing boots and his boot repeatedly hit one of my testicles so hard that I collapsed with the intensity of pain and I almost thought I’ll soon be dead.”Arif Chouhan (centre) said, ““In my 16 years of ministry as a Christian leader, I have not faced such opposition before”

Anoop Masih, aged 47, is a resident of Jalandhar and works as an auto-rickshaw driver. In his recollection of events to Barnabas Fund, Masih said that on the evening of 25 May a man “who seemed to me a learned gentleman” was booked for a ride. “I was asked to stop for a moment in front of a shop in Santokhpura area, where seven men were waiting to ambush me. They suddenly pulled me down from my auto-rickshaw and started to assault me, saying that they are going to put me in a grave today.”

The attackers fled, leaving Masih lying on the street. All of the shopkeepers in the area quickly closed their shops and left. A passer-by who recognised Masih informed his family who came to his aid.

Vishnu Dev, pastor of a church in the nearby city of Ludhiana, said, “The Hindu extremists intended to spread fear and teach Masih a lesson for speaking for the Christian community.”

The incident had begun earlier in the day when Masih went home for lunch. His mother informed him that a group of Hindu extremists were throwing waste soil and garbage on a graveyard designated for Christians. Masih went to the graveyard and spoke to the groups. “I told them not to demean the Christian land and reminded them that the sentiments of the Christians are with their dead buried here,” said Masih.

This particular graveyard is common land given to the Hindu and the Christian communities to cremate bury their dead respectively. According to land records, this was designated even before India’s independence in 1947. Government officials subsequently divided the area a few years back and assigned separate portions to the two communities.

“Some Hindu troublemakers are trying to grab the whole graveyard land for the Hindu community. Amendments are being carried out to the Christian portion of the land without our consent. The idea is to take complete control over the Christian portion gradually,” said Masih in frustration. “We will deal with this issue through the court now.”

Doctors have recommended surgery for Masih, but being poor he cannot afford this. He is also fearful of malpractice during the surgery because of the influence of local Hindu extremists over the doctors in the area.

“The situation for Christians in Punjab is getting difficult. This also coincides with the rise of the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) in the state. Now that elections are just around the corner, the political elements are using these incidents to polarise the state and divert the attention of the people from the real issues like corruption and drug addiction that plague the state,” said Rev. Vijayesh Lal, Executive Director of the Evangelical Fellowship of India.

“We appeal to the Chief Minister of Punjab, Mr. Prakash Singh Badal, to direct his officials to look into this matter in particular and also on the issue of increased targeting of Christians in the state and take appropriate measures to ensure that the rule of law prevails,” he added. 

“Small incidents of violence against Christians used to happen sporadically in Punjab…now since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government come to power [in 26 May 2014], every now and then there are major incidents reported,” said Pastor Vishnu Dev.

Grandmother and granddaughter thrown out of their home

In another incident, which took place in Pakhowal village, in the district of Ludhiana, a seven-year-old girl and her grandmother were thrown out of their home by the girl’s Hindu father because of their decision to convert from Hinduism to Christianity. The father of the girl has also filed a police complaint against Dharminder Bajwa, the pastor of the church which the girl and her grandmother attend.

The grandmother became a Christian five years ago. Her family opposed the decision and tried to convince her to return to Hinduism. The trouble heightened when the young girl – who had been watching her grandmother’s life closely – decided herself to follow Jesus. This was met with strong opposition, and after the young girl stood firm in her new faith both she and her grandmother were asked to leave home.

Pastor Vishnu Dev told Barnabas Fund that the grandmother is now working to support both herself and her granddaughter. “[She] has started to work in a small school where she serves water to the staff and sweeps the school,” he said. 

Attacked with sickle for holding Christian rally

Elsewhere in Punjab state, in the city of Gurdaspur, Arif Chouhan, aged 29, had organised a Masih Chetna Rally (Christian Awareness Rally) on Tuesday 31 May. Four days before the rally, on 27 May, Chouhan was chased by four masked men in a car whilst travelling home on his motorbike. The men stopped Chouhan and brutally assaulted him.

“Each of them was carrying a sickle in their hand and they hit me holding it upside down in a way that I would get internal injuries and not bleed,” said Chouhan to Barnabas Fund. The attackers told Chouhan that they wanted to stop him from running the Christian rally. They hit Chouhan until he fell unconscious. He was left on the road for an hour, after which time he regained consciousness.

Chouhan added that the attack was well-planned, saying, “While assaulting me the attackers said that they had been following me for ten days and finally found me in a secluded place.”

Chouhan sustained internal injuries and fractures to his elbow and ankle.

The incident was registered with the police on 28 May. “I was unable to move for two weeks and the police have now given me two security personnel for my safety,” Chouhan said. He went on to say, “In my 16 years of ministry as a Christian leader, I have not faced such opposition before.”

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More attacks on Indian Christians at Sunday worship

Christian worship services and prayer meetings across India are often targeted by Hindu radicals. Last Sunday in Bihar and the Sunday before in Uttar Pradesh, worship services were disrupted by armed men who assaulted the pastors and, in Bihar, the entire congregation including women and children.

Uttar Pradesh: Pastor and wife severely assaulted during Sunday worship but warned not to get medical attention or complain to police

Pastor Lalta Prasad, 58, and his wife were assaulted by four masked men with wooden sticks during their church’s worship service on Sunday 29 May. The church is located in the village of Naupur, Jaunpur district, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Pastor Prasad (left) with his wife and a member of his church who was also injured in the attack

Around 50-55 Christians were present at the church when the attack took place. Amongst those present were women, children and the elderly, all of whom escaped. The men in the church remained and attempted to rescue Pastor Lalta Prasad and his wife, but they too were attacked.

The attack lasted for 15-20 minutes, before the assailants fled on their motor bikes.

Both Prasad and his wife were taken to the police station and then to the district hospital for treatment.

Dinanath Jaiswar, a church leader from the city of Varanasi who visited the couple on Tuesday (7 June), said to Barnabas Fund, “The doctor on duty warned the couple of the consequences of getting a medical examination done and on filing a case against the assaulters on the basis of the medical test. The couple got extremely frightened and agreed not to get into further trouble and decided not to proceed with the medical examination and thus the police complaint was not filed”.

Jaiswar added, “The political pressure on the police and the medical staff is evident in this case”.

Prasad sustained internal injuries to his head, back, face, legs and muscle tissues, while his wife is unable to stand due to the many blows she received to her back. “They have been very tactfully attacked with no blood and no fractures, so that their injuries would not seem severe to the police”, said Jaiswar.

Prasad, his family and members of the church remain in shock after the attack. According to Jaiswar, “there has been no church service [since the attack] and it seems that the assaulters have been successful in their motives”.

In March this year, Prasad received threats from a group of Hindu extremists and a complaint against him was lodged with the District Magistrate (DM), falsely alleging that he was enticing Hindus into Christianity with the promise of money or employment. The DM ordered an enquiry and instructed the police to look into the matter.

The police investigated Prasad and other Christians, and submitted their report to the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) stating that, “These Christians only pray and worship; they pray in the name of Jesus and healings take place; they do not do any conversion activity.”

Jaiswar comments that “the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh [a Hindu nationalist organisation] were shocked that the police were supportive of the Christians and thus they explored other means to stop Pastor Prasad from ministering to the people”. 

Bihar: Pastor and church members brutally attacked by mob of Hindu extremists; further attacks feared in revenge for arrest of one person

On Sunday 5 June, a mob of 25 Hindu extremists belonging to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) stormed into a church in the city of Patna, in the Indian state of Bihar, brutally assaulting its pastor and all those attendence, including women and children, with bamboo sticks, belts and stones. Many sustained severe injuries and were admitted to hospital. One arrest has so far been made in connection with the attack.

Meeting together in India as Christians can carry great risk.jpg

Meeting together in India as Christians can carry great risk

The incident began at around 1:30pm at the India Mission Centre at Kas Mahal, Patna, when two young men, disguised as students and living in the neighbourhood of the church, disrupted the worship service. The men argued with church members, accusing them of conversion activity. Stones and verbal abuse were thrown by the two men, who have since been identified as Vishnu Kumar and Rahul Kumar.

“The church service was disrupted by members of the ABVP disguised as students. They stormed the venue, created a disturbance and proceeded to beat the Christians present using their belts. They also pelted stones at the women and children present,” said Arun Kumar, a local church leader, speaking to Barnabas Fund.

“When Pastor Meera Rani attempted to intervene in the situation, she too was beaten up by the attackers,” Kumar added.

The attackers were soon joined by Golu Kumar and a mob of around 25 people, all from the ABVP. The Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is the student wing of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), the main political power in the Indian government. ABVP is known to be violently opposed to minority groups.

“Soon a mob also came and joined the attackers. They beat the Christians present with bamboo sticks, used their belts on women and children, and pelted stones. The pastor was beaten up again,” Kumar said to Barnabas Fund. “Many of the Christians were seriously injured and had to be admitted to the local hospital for treatment and first aid”.

Kumar added, “Pastor Meera Rani suffered a fracture in one of her fingers, her back is blue with the beating and she also received a cut under her ear”.

The police are investigating the case and so far one person has been arrested, but this in itself may lead to further attacks on the church.

“The attackers have threatened the church members and the pastor that they will take revenge as one of them is under arrest,” said Arun Kumar. “The ABVP people have warned the Christians not to conduct any more worship services in the church or else next Sunday they will come with guns and swords and will kill the Christians and cut them to pieces.”

The church has approached the police for protection and they have assured them of this. However, the landlord in whose property the church has been meeting is now under pressure and has asked the church to vacate the property by Sunday (12 June). The church has been meeting together in the area for the last six years but has only been meeting at their current location for the last six months.

“Tension and fear prevails. We ask that you pray for our protection, so that we can worship in safety without fear for our lives,” pleaded Kumar.

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Hindu extremists in India beat young Christian woman unconscious

On Sunday 15 May, Kamli Kawasi, a 22-year-old woman, was severely beaten and left unconscious by four young Hindu men who came hunting for her younger brother at their home in a village 40 kilometres from Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh state. Kamli’s crime was being a Christian.

Kamli (centre) with her brother and mother

Kamli, along with her brother Bamaan (19) and their mother, attended the Sunday worship service at a church four kilometres from their village, Parapur, on the morning of 15 May. Parapur falls under the Lohandiguda area in the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh state. That evening, the four young men (aged between 16 and 24) came to their house, hunting for Bamaan. They wanted to beat him up because the family were Christians.

“Because of you, our gods and goddesses are leaving the village and running away,” they told Kamli. They blamed the family for causing deaths in their village. “A child in the village had died a natural death and these young men blamed the Christians for causing this death by leaving their own faith and following Christ, thus causing Hindu gods to get angry”, said local pastor, Bhupendra Khora, to Barnabas Fund. 

They also accused the Christians of practising ‘black magic’.

Kamli was hand-grinding the grain in the courtyard when the young men started to verbally abuse and physically assault her. Bamaan and his mother, who were inside the house, heard the commotion and remained where they were. The young men dragged Kamli by her hair and mercilessly beat her chest, face, abdomen and all parts of her body, resulting in her falling unconscious. Her assailants then fled.

Kamli’s uncle, who lives nearby, happened to visit the family’s home and found Kamli unconscious outside in the dust. It was then that Bamaan and their mother came out of hiding. They immediately rushed Kamli to the government hospital in Lohandiguda. “Kamli regained consciousness on Tuesday (17 May) and was able to state her ordeal only then”, said Khora.

When a team from the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) visited Kamli on her third day in hospital, she was still bleeding heavily. She stayed in the hospital for eight days and was then transferred to a Christian hospital in Jagdalpur. Kamli's brother, Bamaan, spoke to EFI and told them, “They would have killed me, if I came out of hiding”.

It is more than 15 days since the attack, and Kamli, her brother and mother have not been able to go back to their village. “After being discharged from the hospital on 24 May, they have taken shelter at a believer’s house”, Khora said. “They have been threatened not to enter the village. ‘We will kill them, if they return’, the extremists have warned”.

According to sources, each evening since the attack the four young Hindu men return to the family’s house in the village searching for them.

Khora said that a First Information Report was registered with the police on 24 May, “but no investigations have been done by the police untill now”. Khora, along with Kamli, her brother and mother, visited the Additional Superintendent of Police on 31 May, stating that they have not been able to return back home because of the threat of further attacks. “He has assured us of some action against the assaulters”, said Khora.

Khora added, “Kamli complained of not being able to hear in her left ear after the assault and still has chest pain”. He continued, “They are poor and illiterate, they do not know what to do and how to face the situation. They are frightened but yet don’t want to leave Christ”.

Khora continued, “Though Parapur is a tribal village and tribals are animists and worship nature or ancestors, they have [now] started to worship Hindu gods and goddesses. It is a part of the Bajrang Dal’s mission to Hinduize the tribals”. The Bajrang Dal is a militant Hindu organisation that forms the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad.

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Tribal Christians flee Indian village following threat

Six families of Gond tribal Christians have fled their village in the central Indian Chhattisgarh state after Hindu neighbors allegedly threatened to kill them if they didn't convert, their pastor has said.

Following a week of harassment and attacks, all 37 Christians fled Katodi village in Kanker district on April 29, Moses Annel told ucanews.com May 2.

They were "beaten up and their houses were destroyed" after they refused the majority Hindu tribal villagers' "demand to give up their Christian faith," Annel said.

Korar police officials confirmed tensions and said a Maoist insurgency has made it difficult for them to inspect the village.

Police inspector D.P. Shrivastava said tensions erupted April 25 after Christians refused to "contribute" money to a village temple festival.

"It should not be seen as a religious issue. Both parties were tribal people and it was dispute over a donation and it was settled," the police officer said. However, he said he is not aware of the fleeing incident.

But Annel said the attack was based on religion. On April 25, a village meeting summoned six Christian families and directed them to quit Christianity.
"When they refused, they were beaten. Six of them suffered internal injuries and are still undergoing treatment in a government hospital," he said.

Following the Christians' complaints, district officials intervened and brokered a peace between the parties. All were sent back to the village with assurances from Hindu villagers that they would not harm the Christians.

But on April 29, the villagers demolished the houses of Christians and prevented them from fetching water from the common water source, the pastor said.

The attackers also threatened they would kill them if the Christian villagers did not remove the police complaint, Annel said.

That threat forced the Christians to flee their village to a hill top forest at least 70 kilometers away.

The state, ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, a Hindu-nationalist party, has become a hotbed of anti-Christian violence with right-wing Hindu groups attacking Christians with impunity.

Christian leaders said police are indifferent to attacks on Christians and that the government tacitly supports violence on religious minorities.

Father Sebastian Poomattam, vicar general of Raipur Archdiocese, said the situation has worsened after Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in New Delhi two years ago.

"Our life has become miserable" after Modi began to head the federal government, he said. "We see a sudden rise in the attacks against Christians in the past couple of years," he said, adding, "These are all organized attacks."

The Evangelical Fellowship of India has documented at least four verified incidents of hate crimes targeting Christians from January to March in the state.

However, Chhattisgarh Christian Forum president Arun Pannalal said there were at least 20 cases of attacks on Christians this year so far.

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Indian pastor and pregnant wife attacked by militant Hindus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Indian pastor and his pregnant wife were assaulted and their church set on fire on Sunday evening (17 April) after they refused to praise a Hindu god.

Pastor Dinbanhu Sameli, 30, and his wife, Meena, 26, seven months pregnant, lead a church in the troubled Bastar district of the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

Two young men approached the pastor outside his home next to his church at around 7pm, initially asking for prayer, claiming they were from a nearby Methodist church. But they later brought out a sword which they held to the pastor’s neck, and demanded the couple shout the phrase, “Jai Shri Ram” (Victory to the god Ram).

“Where is your Jesus?” the two men demanded; Sameli replied “We believe that he is with us”. When asked “Why don’t you believe in Ram?” husband and wife remained silent.

When the couple refused to do praise Ram, and also refused to stamp on a Bible, the two men took a litre of petrol and set fire to the church, including musical equipment.

Sameli said he “felt fear in his heart” with the sword on his shoulder, but “prayed that God would save him”.

As the church burned, the couple fled and filed a report with the police.

Fire damage at the church, 2016

But local media then blamed the incident on the local Methodist pastor, and also erroneously reported that the couple had been doused in petrol and set alight.

The incident took place in the remote village of Karanji, in the Tokapal area of the sprawling Bastar district, which has seen several recent incidents of anti-Christian violence at the hands of Hindu fundamentalists. Last year, the couple told World Watch Monitor, a gang of people from a militant Hindu group, Bajrang Dal, came on two tractors, shouted “Jai Shri Ram” in front of the church, and wrote the same slogan on its front wall, on both the sides of the main door.

In July 2014, the village of Belar, also in Bastar, passed a resolution banning all non-Hindu religious activities.

In October 2014, the high court of Chhattisgarh state asked the state government to ensure that anti-Christian resolutions passed by village councils would not infringe religious freedom. A Christian organisation challenging the local resolutions said at the time that the court order was “only a minor relief.”

“This [latest] incident cannot be seen in isolation from what is happening here,” Arun Pannalal, president of Chhattisgarh Christian Forum (CCF), told World Watch Monitor.

Part of the incident's First Information Report

“[That] the police have registered [a report] against ‘unknown miscreants’ is laughable,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “In a small town, police [are] well informed. Police [are] trying to protect them.”

“Tokapal is a very small place, where everybody knows everybody. Police registering [a report] against unidentified persons itself is an indication that police [are] trying to downplay the incident and protect the accused,” Pannalal was quoted by the Times of India as saying.

Pannalal told World Watch Monitor “the police officers who have failed to protect our fundamental rights should be suspended immediately and [investigated] for dereliction of duty.”

Sameli assured WWM contacts who phoned him on Thursday 21st April that police are now working with him on the case. 

Recent incidents involving minority Christians

Between January and April 2016 there have been 49 reported incidents -14 in April alone - in Chhattisgarh, ruled by the Hindu nationalist party the BJP. Over ther same time there have been 116 in total in central India, although these include women tortured by their husbands for their faith, other beatings of pastors, and a case of villagers not allowing a Christian to be buried.

On 17 March, the Municipal Corporation of Raipur, the state capital, gave a demolition notice to a Pentecostal church, saying it had been built on land to which it had no right. 

Ten days before, the church had been vandalised by Hindu fundamentalists during Sunday worship, and worshippers beaten up.

Over a thousand Christians staged a sit-in under the banner of CCF the next day, and the demolition order was withdrawn.

In February, a pastor was beaten during a prayer meeting, while two months earlier a group of activists from Bajrang Dal demolished a venue where people were celebrating the establishment of a church in Korba.

In 2014 and 2015, 93 organised attacks on Christians were reported in Chhattisgarh.