Orissa after he was detained at a massive evangelistic meeting as part of a crackdown on preachers, Indian Christians involved in the case told BosNewsLife.
The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), a major advocacy group, said 25-year-old Amit Kumar Roul was arrested “as a scapegoat last [week] October 26 and jailed" during the ‘Peace Festival and Healing Crusade’ in Gudripadri village, near Udayagiri town, in Orissa’s Kandhamal district.
GCIC President Sajan George told BosNewsLife that his group’s coordinator, Asit Mohanti, had "secured the release" of Roul during a “most difficult mission of securing bail for the innocent Christian brother," who he claimed was "falsely implicated by Orissa police."
"COMMUNAL DISHARMONY"
Police reportedly charged him with "causing communal disharmony" after Hindu militants complained about him selling Christian literature at the evangelistic event, which was attended by an estimated 10,000 people.
"This young man is from a very very poor [Christian] family from [the area of] Cuttack whose father is deaf. He had gone to the Gospel meeting at Udayagiri to sell some books and earn some money to meet some expenses of his sister’s marriage," George said. Some books apparently criticized the controversial religious caste system in India, a predominantly Hindu nation. It was unclear how much, if anything, was paid to secure his release on bail.
The GCIC said he narrowly escaped a kidnapping by members of the Hindu militant group Sang Parivar who were waiting outside the prison Friday, November 3. George explained that GCIC investigators also learned that the same group threatened "massive killings of Christians" attending last week’s evangelistic meeting.
DALITS SUPPORT
Amid these threats local police searched for someone to blame and "hesitatingly implicated this young man" as well as organizers for allegedly creating religious tensions, GCIC concluded.
The organization urged the international community to support Dalits, seen as the ‘lowest case’ in India’s system of Hinduism, «and others marginalized in society."
Christians comprise less than 3 percent of the country’s roughly 1.1 billion people. Hindu militants have increasingly attacked active Christians, missionaries and church leaders, accusing them of "forced conversions." Evangelicals have denied the charges and say radical Hindu groups seem concerned about the spread of Christianity in especially rural areas of India. (With reports from India and BosNewsLife Research).
