Believers beaten up by and arrested for singing
Christmas Carols in Chattisgarh.
The Church of God in Jalanpur village, Dhamtari
District has been in existence since the 80s.
They have planted village churches in several
nearby districts as well, and also run a small
Bible school. According to the Pastor James
Ram, some believers and Bible school students
started a week-long Christmas programme in the
area as in previous years. They started on 21st,
distributing free gifts of New Testaments in
several villages and on 23rd they had done the
same in their village, Jalanpur. On 24th at
about 12 pm, some activists of the Bajrang Dal
and the Dharam Raksha Sena burnt some of the
Bibles in public in the centre of town, which
was photographed as well.
That same day, around 4 pm, about 20 young people
and believes were still on their rounds. They
had a procession, with a Santa Claus, balloons,
etc, singing carols and wearing t-shirts which
read "Wish you a Merry Christmas and a
Happy New Year" and were distributing slips
in which people were invited to contact the
church if they wanted to know more about Christmas.
Pastor James Ram left them to return home for
a little while. In his absence, a gang of activists
from the BJP, Bajrang Dal and Dharam Raksha
Sena accosted the group and challenged them.
They were led by the local Parshak (municipality-
level leader) of the BJP, N.P.Gupta. The group
included, among others, Bhupendra Mushra –
Bajrang Dal Leader, Subodh Rathi, active member
of the Bajrang Dal, and others such as Mahendra
Pandit, Sukesh Diwan, Dilip soni, Veeru Mahajan,
and Jaichand Darar. The assailants objected
to the believers singing carols and distributing
Christian literature, and attacked the church
members and beat them up.
They were dragged along to the City Kotwali,
Jalanpur Ward. On the way, the fanatics stopped
a woman on her way to the toilet, carrying a
vessel of water. The group was forced to drink
this water and to say "Jai Shri Ram"
– a slogan of the Hindu radicals,
along with the beat of drums and slogan-shouting.
At the police station, a case was registered
against the Christians under Sec. 295 (d) of
the relevant law.
One of the believers, Sunder, has lost his hearing
due the blows, and a student, John Digar, had
a hand fractured in the attack. In all, five
of the believers were injured in the attack.
A total of eleven persons including Pastor James
Ram were arrested on false charges of illegal
conversion. The pastor was released at 10.30
pm on 24th and the rest of the believers were
released at 6.30 p.m on 25th December. The GCIC
coordinator Sam Mathew went to Dhamtari to supervise
relief efforts and console the affected. We
request your prayer support for Pastor James
Ram and his church members.
Courtesy :GCIC
Posted by: "grimgargantua" grimgargantua@email.com
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