women and children, just days after militants attacked the country’s only Christian university.In a published statement Gospel Echoing Missionary Society said "a mob of Hindu extremists" surrounded its compound last month in India’s Bihar state, keeping it "under siege" for three days.
"We’ve been trapped inside the compound for the past three days, as there is a big mob right at the entrance of our campus. There are about 100 families and 900 children … inside the compound" the Christian Compass Direct news agency quoted an e-mail from an official as saying.
The militants reportedly tried to kill Mission Director Rev. Augustine Jebakumar and demanded his arrest for allegedly "desecrating" a Hindu idol. The trouble apparently began when a group of young people taking part in a religious procession passed the GEMS compound in Sikaria village, in the state’s tense Rohtas district.
When Jebakumar objected to the noise, a man in the procession hit him on the nose and others joined in the attack, Compass Direct said, citing sources in the area. The mob allegedly hit the Christians with sticks and stones, injuring at least 12, four of them seriously injured. Two Christians were reportedly hospitalized.
PRESSURE ON AUTHORITIES
It comes at a time when there is growing pressure on Indian authorities to allow Hindu militants to carry weapons, in an effort to combat what they see as "forced conversions", BosNewsLife established.
Already at least one state, Madhya Pradesh, has repealed a 2002 ban on three-pronged trident spears, which some Christians fear may incite further attacks against them, Compass Direct said.
There is also concern about police involvement in violence. Police reportedly picked up two Christians attending a worship service at the home of Christians Jagdish and Grace Nayak on September 4 in Madhya Pradesh and detained them for four hours.
A Hindu mob also threatened Atul David and Antar Singh with death if they worshiped with the Nayaks again. About 40 policemen were deployed near the Nayaks’ house after an earlier attack on August 21, in which the Nayaks and their 2-year-old child were assaulted by members of the Hundu hard-line group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
UNIVERSITY ATTACKED
On Sunday, a Hindu mob attacked a worship service of 7,000 believers India’s only Christian university in the town of Allahabad in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh, BosNewsLife learned.
The management of the Allahabad Agricultural Institute, a 95-year-old Christian institute of higher learning, told the BosNewsLife New Delhi Bureau that the university would "remain closed for an unlimited time till the normalcy is restored."
Human rights activists and church groups have linked the violence to Hindu concern about the spread of Christianity in India, although Christians comprise just over two percent of the over 1 billion, predominantly Hindu, population, according various estimates.
