In one of the latest incidents, the Mission Action Prayer Fellowship Church in Bada village, about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) from the town of Davangere, was attacked and torched by an angry Hindu mob of some 300 people last Sunday, September 7, rights groups and witnesses said.
The attackers reportedly broke the asbestos ceiling and windows and set fire to material inside, including copies of the Bible, the cross and the pulpit. Ten people have been arrested, Indian news media said, but tensions remain in the area as hundreds of people have demanded the release of those detained.
The local Pastor, identified only as Lukas E., suggested to The Hindu newspaper he was suprised about Sunday’s attack as the congregation started in the area in 1991 and its building had been there since 1997. "There had been no trouble earlier," he was quoted as saying.
"DEMEANING HINDU GODS"
Local villagers have accused the Protestant prayer congregation of "converting the locals" by luring them with gifts and by "demeaning Hindu gods and religious customs" and said that the violence was "spontaneous", The Hindu reported. They were quoted as saying that the attackers were “angry locals” and those from nearby villages "who want to safeguard the Hindu religion." They reportedly said "as many as 40" families "had been converted" in the village, which has a population of 2,800.
The pastor stressed however "only three families in the village were Christian" and the rest came for prayers from other places. Sunday’s attack, carried out by Hindu militants, came amid a new government-backed campaign to end "forcible" conversions and close down "unauthorized" church services, BosNewsLife monitored.
The official in charge of the policy, Deputy Commissioner K. Amar Narayan, said he had instructed police to conduct a survey of churches and prayer halls "to check how many of them were authorised." He said the outcome of the investigation was expected within three days, technically by Thursday, September 11.
DEMOLISHING CHURCHES
Davangere authorities have reportedly already issued notices to demolish three churches – Eternal Life Church, Divine Healing Ministry church and Jesus Prayer Hall, saying their buildings were illegal. More than a dozen other churches have received notices asking them to obtain a “license” for holding worship services, said the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), a major umbrella group representing missionaries and churches.
Christian missionaries have also been targeted. Last month four workers of the Gospel for Asia (GFA) mission group were been released after spending more than a week in a Karnataka jail. The missionaries, Yohan Samuel, Raj Lohra, Nanji Bir and Shobha Joshi, were arrested July 31 and charged with attempting to force people to convert to Christianity and with “offending the sentiments of the people," GFA said.
The missionaries, three of which are Bible college students doing their internship, were having a prayer meeting in Yohan’s residence at about July 31 when a Hindu mob of some 700 people showed up and began harassing them, GFA added. "They were brutally beaten before being thrown in jail."
Rights groups expect tensions to rise in the state, which is ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. Christians comprise less than two percent of the state’s nearly 60 million population, according to estimates. The latest religious frictions come after weeks of unrest in the state of Orissa, where some 36 people are said to have died in attacks against churches and other Christian institutions.
