"a group of Hindu fundamentalists" in the Indian city of Mumbai after their religious gathering was mistaken as "a conversion ceremony," police said Sunday, June 12. Two of the missionaries, Philip Allan and Clover Edward, were slightly injured in the attack, police officials said. A third missionary, identified as Richard Jenal, was abducted but later set free, police added.
The troubles began when "a group of around 40 people attacked a Christian gathering and assaulted the missionaries late on Saturday night" in a suburb of Mumbai, known as India’s famous film or ‘Bollywood’ center, local police said in a statement obtained by BosNewsLife. Mumbai is also the capital of the predominantly Hindu state of Maharashtra, in Western India.
Police said two persons were arrested but later released by a local court. It was not immediately clear for which organization the missionaries worked. The latest reported violence against Christien believers comes just weeks after a team of the US-backed Youth With a Mission group was attacked in India.
Churches have expressed concern about threats made by Hundu groups to attack Christian missionaries, and the distribution of weapons among Hindu militants in several states. Hindu militants have said that Christians try to force Hindu’s to accept a "foreign religion."
Evangelicals claim they do nothing more than preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who they say also loves Hindu people. (Satya Sundar Mishra is BosNewsLife India Reporter based in Orissa. Mishra, 26, is a Development Journalist of Orissa working on social and religious issues that are not yet on the radar screen of media and politicians. He has been working for a variety of key publications. The reporter can be reached via e-mail satya_mishra11@rediffmail.com ).
