The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) said 35-year old Pastor Hanock Sanjeev, a former Hindu from the town of Asifabad, was beaten Saturday, March 29, by activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), or ‘National Volunteers Organization’, a hard-line Hindu group.
"A group of four RSS activists entered forcibly into Pastor Hanok’s house and started beating him with sticks before leaving the place. He went to the hospital and was back in the evening after treatment. He still has pain in his chest region," GCIC said.
Just two days earlier in the same state Hindu militants attacked and severely injured the grandparents and aunt of a 15-year-old girl in the village of Bahera, when the Christian family stopped the mob from raping her, Christians said. It came after nine Hindu militants reportedly demanded that the father of the girl, Brij Gopal Saket, turn over his daughter, Urmila, so that they could abuse her. Saket apparently refused to hand her over and locked himself, his wife and daughter inside their home.
The militants, who had reportedly threatened other local Christians with violence for worshipping Christ, then grabbed Saket’s parents and his sister who were outside the house and beat them with rods, sticks and stones, according to local sources.
They were the latest victims of an apparent new wave of anti-Christian launched by Hindu and Islamic militants since Good Friday, March 21, when militants entered the house of Peerzada Shakeel, a convert to Christianity from Islam, and dragged him to the mosque “to say his Muslim prayers," Christians said.
"FALSE CHARGES"
He was reportedly detained along with his wife Arifa in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, after his father and other Muslims brought “false charges” against related to him "forced conversions," Indian Christians said. He were released the next day, but reportedly still under house arrest Wednesday, April 2.
The Good Friday violence in Jammu and Kashmir spread to other areas of India during Easter, rights investigators said, including in Karnataka’s state capital of Bangalore and in Shimoga district, where Hindu militants reportedly stormed two Easter Sunday services, beating at least 16 Christians, including two pastors.
In one of the attacks, a mob of over 150 intolerant Hindus on Sunday, March 23, launched an attack on a Pentecostal church in Karnataka’s Shimoga district in the morning, while a group of over a dozen assailants struck Christians of an independent church in Byapanahalli on the suburbs of Bangalore, said the GCIC in a statement. Accusing the Pentecostal church of "forced" conversions, the attackers allegedly beat 35-year-old pastor Mandya Nagraj and five others, besides vandalizing church property.
In Byapanahalli in Bangalore, some 12 “extremists led by a Hindu priest” and an associate attacked the Grace Almighty Full Gospel Church. The assailants beat Pastor P. Isaac and nine believers, including a 17-year-old girl, the GCIC added.
POLICE REFUSAL
Although police apparently refused to register a complaint against Pastor Isaac for "forced" conversions, the pastor has been pressured to leave the area. Christians said. Violence was also reported around Easter in the state of Madhya Pradesh, where reportedly seven RSS activists interrupted the evening service of a house church in Bherugarh village, beating believers with stones and sticks. The owner of the house, Bhurji Dindore of the Shalom Mission group and his wife were reportedly seriously injured. The attackers also took away Bibles and Christian literature and destroyed the house’s roof, Christians explained.
Instead of taking action against attackers, police reportedly detained the pastor and Dindore last week, before releasing them on a 1,200 rupees ($30) bail. Police officials could not immediately be reached for comment. The Easter violence came after Hindu militants already threatened and attacked Christians, including nuns, earlier in the month.
On March 15 an angry Hindu mob attacked and sexually assaulted two Catholic nuns in the coastal town of Alibaug in Maharashtra state, the GCIC and India media reported. Sister Mercy Tuscano and Sister Philomena D’Mello, were reportedly preparing to hold a women’s empowerment program to spread AIDS awareness among tribal people when the attack occurred.
A day earlier in the Indian state of Karnataka activists the Hindu group Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) allegedly disrupted a Christian program entitled “Miracle” held March 14 at a playground in Koramangala area of Bangalore, injuring several Christians, the GCIC said. Police said KRV “extremists” accused preachers of “mass conversion.” Indian media reported. Police detained some 20 suspects, said GCIC President Sajan K. George in published comments. There whereabouts were not immediately clear Wednesday April 2.
PREACHERS ATTACKED
Attacks against preachers reportedly already began March 9 when in the state of Madhya Pradesh Hindu RSS militants “beat pastor Tulsi Ram and had him arrested on false charges of forced conversion on March 11 in the town of Shajapur. He was reportedly dragged to the police station on charges of “forced conversions” and beaten before and during police custody. He released March 14, on bail.
Also on March 9 in Karnataka state Hindu nationalist of the RSS group disrupted a worship service in a rented home in the Davangare area, “severely beating” the gathered Christians, with one believer requiring hospitalization for internal injuries, GCIC said. Pastor Philemon Babu reportedly said that among the 25 people attending Sunday morning worship was a new person fidgeting with his mobile phone.
"Suddenly at around 11:30 a.m., around 30 extremists barged into the assembly shouting Hindu devotional chants, ‘Jai Shri Ram [Hail god Rama]. They began slapping and hitting the believers, snatched Bibles from their hands and tore them. They made false accusations of [forced] conversion and played the recording of my sermon, which the newcomer had recorded on his mobile phone.”
Cursing the Christians, the Hindu extremists beat up several of them, with evangelist Jobin Varghese repeatedly struck and another identified only as Nagaranjan hospitalized with internal injuries. The Hindus allegedly warned Christians of “more serious consequences” if worship services continue in the future. The pastor has been ordered to leave his home and no Sunday worship has been held since, said GCIC President George.
Christians comprise just over two percent of India’s over 1.1 billion people, however Hindu and Islamic militants have complained of a spread of Christianity in the country.
