New Delhi, December 27, 2006 (All India Christian
Council)
Organised attacks on Christian minorities reported
from across the country during Christmas celebration.
Christians were put in the bar for celebrating
Christmas. The Hindutva extremists have organised
hate campaign against Christian minorities.
Dharma Sena (Hindu Religious Extremist) of Vishva
Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) has misused
the anti conversion bills passed in BJP rule
states of India.
Most of the Christian attacks in the states
of Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh have been
carried out by the activists of Dharma Sena.
The state governments, police forces and judicial
system of those BJP rule states have failed
to protect and render justice to Christian minorities.
The same has been reported by Indian People’s
Tribunal about situation in the state of Orissa.
1. Attacks in Chhatisgarh –
A Lady School Teacher arrested Arun Pannalal
– General Secretary of Chhatisgarh
Christian Forum reported to All India Christian
Council that night before Christmas Dharm Sena
activists roamed in and around Raipur, the capital
city of Chhatisgarh in 50 vehicles announcing
publicly to close down any form of Christmas
celebration in Raipur city. Mr. Arun said that
it was their game plan to some how push Chhatisgarh
into communal violence.
A source reaching to Christian Council, a lady
has been falsely implicated for distributing
Bible in her school. She was beaten badly by
Dharm Sena activist and latter police has arrested
her with false charges of force conversion.
Mr. Arun said that state Government led by Bharatiya
Janta Party (Hindu Political Party) protected
the culprits and falsely accused the lady with
anti conversion bill.
2. Attacks in Chhatisgarh –
A Pastor charged with force conversion when
distributed toffees
Christian Council has been reported that a pastor
is beaten up by Dharma Sena activists in Chhatisgarh
while distributing toffees to Sunday school
children. Police has framed falsely with anti
conversion bill. Mr. Arun said that when Chhatisgarh
Christian Forum tried to bail out, Dharm Sena
activists threaten the Chhatisgarh Christian
Forum members. The democratic rights of Christian
minority have been denied by Dharm Sena activists
and Police forces.
3. Attacks in Chhatisgarh –
A Pastor along with ten members arrested on
Christmas Eve
Rev. Ram from Dhamtari –
80 km away from Raipur along with ten other
church members have been arrested on Christmas
Eve with the charges of force conversion. BJP
led state Government has not give rights to
Christian community to celebrate Christmas.
Sources reaching to Christian Council, Rev.
Ram and his ten church members have been beaten
up for distributing toffees to his church members
and police has arrested them with force conversion
allegation.
Mr. Arun reports that Chhatisgarh Christian
Forum managed to bail out Rev. Ram and his colleagues
with the help of some known officials. Rev.
Ram and his colleagues have been summoned to
appear before district magistrate.
4. Meitei Christians in Manipur Threaten to
burn down their homes if do not forsake Christianity
Rev. Debendra – Executive
Secretary of Meitei Baptist Association report
to All India Christian Council that some of
the villagers of Waithou Trongloubi under Thoubal
Police station threaten the Christian minority
of the village in a written document dated December
23, 2006 that Christians will not be allowed
to celebrate Christmas in the village.
After having receive the threatening letter,
the matter has been reported to Thoubal District
Police headquarter. Security forces were provided
to the Christians to celebrate the Christmas.
Police arrested Laishram Sharat and Kundrakpam
Brojen who led the villagers to oppose the Christian
present in the village. Latter both were released
with warning not to disturb the Christians in
village.
The latest source reaching to Christian Council
that it has been reported that villagers have
resolved again to force the Christian families
to leave the village other their homes will
be burnt down.
Soon after receiving the threat from villagers,
All India Christian Council has called upon
Mr. Ibomcha – the District
Superintendent of Police, Thoubal and reported
the matter. Mr. Ibomcha assured Christian Council
that Christians of the village will be protected
and any culprits involve in the crime will be
dealt severely.
5. Police bared Christians in Hisar District
of Punjab from preaching about Christ on Christmas
On December 24, 2006, Rev. Reginald Howell –
Senior Pastor of Good Shepherd Community Churches
reported that his church members in Hisar district
of Punjab was taken to the local police station
and warned not to preach on Christmas eve.
To protect and provide the constitutional rights
to profess and propagate the religion one likes
is the duty of police forces. But Mr. Vidya
Anand – Station House Officer
(SHO) of local police station reported to Christian
Council that local Christians have been instructed
to celebrate Christmas without preaching about
Christ.
On December 23, 2006, two of the local pastors
in Hisar district were taken to police station
and latter released with warning not to preach
about Christ. Latter the Christian Council was
reported that on December 24, 2006, both the
pastors were again taken to police station and
warned not to have any form of Christmas celebration
as Siva Sena and Bajrang Dal activities objected.
All India Christian Council condemns Hindutva
forces for false allegation upon the peace loving
Christian community and harassing Christmas
celebration. Christian Council also appeals
to police forces to protect and provide the
constitutional rights to Christian minorities.
6. Hindu extremists attack against Christians
in Haryana
About 50 Bajrang Dal extremists attacked the
Christian couple, Rakesh Sen and Suman Sen,
at about 8 a. m. yesterday at their home in
Lakarpur, Faridabad district, Haryana. The attackers
were upset at the couple for regularly allowing
their New Life Fellowship church to meet in
their home for Sunday worship.
The extremists warned them against holding church
services at their home and said they would organize
a program on Saturday (December 24) in which
all the church members would have to chant the
names of Hindu gods.
Police accepted and registered a complaint against
the Bajrang Dal, and the village head of Lakarpur
has apologized for the attack, according to
Cinderella Lal, the pastor of New Life Fellowship.
"The village head gave us an assurance
in writing that no one will trouble us in the
future," Lal said. "So it seems we
have reached a compromise with the attackers."
A representative of the Christian Legal Association
of India said the Bajrang Dal extremists had
cancelled the program planned for December 24.
Haryana state has one of the lowest percentages
of Christians in India. According to the 2001
government census, only about 27,000 of the
21 million residents of Haryana are Christians.
7. Pastor Assaulted in Chhattisgarh
In Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh, a group
of about 50 extremists from the Dharam Raksha
Sena (DRS or Army for Religious Protection)
beat an independent pastor on Sunday (December
17) and accused him of forced conversions.
They attacked Philip Jagdalla as he returned
to his home after teaching Sunday school at
his church, according to a statement released
by the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum (CCF).
The mob then dragged Jagdalla to the police
station in Pandri and accused him of forced
conversions. The police lodged a complaint against
Jagdalla under Section 295A of the Indian Penal
Code for "hurting the religious sentiments
of Hindus." Jagdalla was then held in police
custody.
When representatives of the CCF reached the
police station on Sunday afternoon, they found
a mob of DRS extremists surrounding the station
and shouting slogans against Christians.
"They knew we were going to the police
station to bail out Pastor Jagdalla, and they
did not want the police to release him,"
the CCF said in a statement.
Police sent the pastor to a hospital for medical
examination – which the CCF
lauded, as police in India rarely do that for
Christian victims – and registered
a counter complaint against the attackers. The
CCF criticized local newspapers for publishing
false allegations against Jagdalla.
Chhattisgarh also has a population of about
21 million, out of which only 401,000 are Christians.
8. Christians stoned in Hubli, Karnataka
Residents of Revadihal village on this city's
outskirts pelted stones at a group of Christian
missionaries, alleging that they were converting
people by distributing sweets.
No one was injured in the incident as the missionaries
took shelter in a van they were travelling in
and managed to flee from the village, police
said.
According to police, the Christian missionaries,
who reached the village this morning, were reportedly
converting people. As the news spread, villagers
surrounded them and pelted stones in protest.
Tension prevailed in the village after the incident
but the situation was now under control, police
said.
VHP leader Gokak Subhas Singh expressed anguish
at the reported conversion and demanded that
the government should initiate steps to check
such incidents.
9. Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) became the cause
of an injury to a boy in Khandwa near Indore
A youth named Chandan injured another person
Rustam Khan with one of the trishuls he received
from the VHP after a trivial altercation.
"A boy was sitting at the backside of my
house. He was sitting there since 2 pm. At 6
pm I went to him and asked him the reason for
sitting there. He told me that he is waiting
for his friends. I told him to leave, but he
started abusing me. So, I slapped him on his
face. At this, he went away and came back with
some boys. One
boy held my hands and the other boy pulled out
a sharp trishul like weapon and stabbed me in
my back," said Rustam Khan, the victim.
Chandan, has been arrested and a case under
section 307 IPC has been registered against
him.
Police is trying to locate Chandan's friends,
interrogate them and take an appropriate action
against them.
Superintendent of Police (SP), Khandwa K D Parashst
said, "According to the victim's brother,
Chandan's friends had come along with him but
they did not assault. They just fled when Chandan
assaulted Rustam. Now, we are trying to ascertain
the names and addresses of his friends and arrest
them".
The victim's brother Aslam Khan pleaded for
a ban on such mass distribution of trishuls.
10. A group of Christian villagers in Jharkhand
have re-converted to their original tribal religion
The group of 48 tribals from 12 villages in
Bero block of Ranchi were re-converted by the
Hindu Jagran Manch on Wednesday. They had been
converted to Christianity a few years ago and
the Hindu Jagran Manch was persuading them to
reconvert.
'The people were re converted to the tribal
community under the Ghar Vapsi (back home) programme
launched by our organisation. The tribes people
were converted to Christianity by alluring them
with money and other things,' alleged Suman
Kumar, state organiser Hindu Jagran Manch.
The tribal priests carried out the rituals of
re conversion by washing the feet of the 48
people and reciting prayers to 'purify' them.
A few weeks ago, around 600 tribals converted
to Christianity in Jharkhand
THe Hindu Jagran Manch through intimidation
and strong arm tactics force people to go through
these -reconversion drama'
11. Two Young Christian Women, Minor Tortured
in India
Hindu extremists break into their home
and beat them for refusing to ‘reconvert.’
by Vishal Arora
NEW DELHI, December 22 (Compass Direct News)
– A group of Hindu extremists
in the southern state of Karnataka have tortured
two young women and a girl who converted to
Christianity in an attempt to “reconvertâ€
them to Hinduism.
The incident took place in Guruparahalli area,
12 kilometers (8 miles) from Bangalore, the
capital of Karnataka, on December 14. A man
identified only as Ramesh broke into the house
of three sisters – Jyothi,
20; Nandhini, 18; and Jalaja, 16. He pressured
them to reconvert and beat them for refusing.
The victims, who work in a garment factory,
attend the Assembly of God church. Ramesh, who
used to live nearby until three months ago,
had been opposing the sisters since they converted
to Christianity from Hinduism a few months ago.
“The extremists intruded into
the house of the women in the evening and got
violent upon finding a Bible and other Christian
literature on a table,†Dr.
Sajan K. George, national president of the Global
Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), told Compass.
The intruders told the sisters that they would
give them whatever they could ask for, and that
Jesus would do nothing for them. The sisters
did not react. This made the extremists more
furious, and they threw the Bible and Christian
literature on the floor and stamped on them.
“The fanatics also replaced
a Christian calendar with that of Sai Baba,
a Hindu god,†George said.
“They pressured the women
to worship the picture of Sai Baba and apply
vermillion on their forehead as a sign of their
conversion to Hinduism.â€
When the sisters refused to do so, the extremists
beat them. “They pulled the
youngest sister’s hair, dragged
her and banged her against the wall,â€
he said. “They beat the other
two sisters also very brutally. One of them
fainted, as she is an asthmatic patient.â€
Sadly, he added, the parents did not come to
rescue their daughters. “The
fanatics continued to beat and torture the sisters
for over four hours and left the place only
at 2 a.m.,†George said.
The sisters’ father is allegedly
an alcoholic and lives on the income of his
daughters.
Fearing further tensions, the three sisters
took a taxi and left for their uncle’s
place in Bangalore at about 4 a.m. Upon learning
about the persecution, the victim’s
uncle, identified only as Natesh, lodged a police
complaint.
The police arrested Ramesh, who was released
on bail on December 20. The police are investigating
the case.
George said the December 14 break-in was the
third time Hindu extremists had barged into
the sisters’ house. Ramesh
and others first broke into their house on December
13 to warn them against attending church and
reading Christian literature.
When they returned on the morning of December
14, they found Nandhini reading the Bible, which
infuriated them. They warned the sisters again
and promised to come back in the evening, when
they attacked them.
Separately, in Revadihal village on the outskirts
of Bangalore, local residents on Tuesday (December
19) pelted stones at a group of Christian missionaries
and accused them of converting Hindus.
According to Indo-Asian News Service (IANS),
no one was injured as the missionaries took
shelter in a van they were traveling in and
managed to flee from the village.
Tension prevailed in the village after the incident,
but the situation was soon brought under control,
said IANS.
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council)
demanded that the government initiate steps
to check conversions.
12. Yuletide Carol-Singers Arrested,
Church Burned in India Christmas Eve services
disrupted in several states.
by Vishal Arora and Nirmala Carvalho
NEW DELHI, December 27 (Compass Direct News)
– Hindu extremists burned
down a church in India on Saturday (December
23), arrested carol-singers on Christmas Eve
and disrupted yuletide services in several states.
One Christian suffered a fractured hand, and
another lost his hearing.
Extremists burned down a thatched church in
Boriguma area, Koraput district of Orissa state
on Saturday night (December 23), preventing
church members from celebrating Christmas there.
The congregation had already decorated the building
for Christmas festivities, but everything was
destroyed in the fire.
Asit Kumar Mohanty, state representative of
the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC),
said GCIC was investigating the incident to
determine who was responsible.
On Christmas Eve, about 45 jeeps full of Dharma
Sena members circled through the streets of
Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh state, announcing
that they would close down all church services
held on Christmas Day.
"Dharma Sena is a Hindu fundamentalist
group supported by the VHP and the ruling Bharatiya
Janata Party state government," Arun Pannalal,
general secretary of the Chhattisgarh Christian
Forum, told Compass.
"They had already carried out several attacks
in the week before Christmas," he added.
"These public threats are just another
step in their campaign to rid the state of Christians."
13. Prayer Service Disrupted
Hindu extremists also prevented tribal Christians
in Tilonda village, Thane district of Maharashtra
state, from celebrating a joint Christmas prayer
service on Christmas Eve.
Over 400 Christians had gathered for the event.
Before the service could begin, however, a large
mob from the local Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad barged
into the assembly, shouting slogans against
Christianity and driving the Christians away
from the prayer hall.
Fearing further violence, church officials canceled
the event.
According to Dr. Abraham Mathai, vice-chair
of the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission,
there were three other incidents of violence
against tribal Christians in Thane district
in the week before Christmas.
Mathai had written to local police asking for
protection for the Christmas Eve prayer service.
"The police were present, but they did
nothing when the extremists arrived," Mathai
said.
14. 'Reconverted' to Hinduism
The Hindu extremist group Dharam Jagran Samiti
(DJS or Society for Religious Revival) yesterday
(December 26) claimed it had "reconverted
a large number of Christians" in Agra district
of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Asian
News International reported.
"Those Hindus who had converted to Christianity,
or those who were lured into joining it by Christian
missionaries, were called here to return back
to the Hindu fold with respect and on equal
terms," said Gajeshwar Singh, regional
chief of the DJS.
On December 23, police asked the Good Shepherd
Community Church (GSCC) in Agroha, Hisar district,
Haryana state not to celebrate Christmas.
"Some people, seemingly belonging to the
Bajrang Dal and VHP, lodged a complaint in the
Agroha police station alleging that the church
was converting Hindus," the Rev. Reginald
Howell of the GSCC told Compass.
He said the complaint was filed when the church
members were singing Christmas carols in the
church.
Following the compaint, the police summoned
seven Christians, including the pastor of the
church, identified only as Romi, and interrogated
them. They were released after the village head
requested the police.
"The Christians were called to the police
station again on December 24 and ordered not
to conduct any service on Christmas," Howell
said. "However, after representatives of
the Christian Legal Association of India intervened,
the police allowed the church to celebrate Christmas,"
he added.
15. Police Prevention
In the only positive report, officials prevented
an anti-Christian rally in Dangs, Gujarat, on
Christmas Day, heading off further violence.
The All India Christian Council (AICC) has thanked
the chief minister of Gujarat state, Narendra
Modi, for preventing anti-Christian violence
in Dangs district during Christmas.
AICC Joint Secretary Samson Christian said the
heads of both Dangs and Bhavnagar districts
refused permission to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
(World Hindu Council) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh to hold a massive rally in the region
on Christmas day.
The rally was announced after eight statues
of local gods were desecrated by unknown persons
on December 14. Hindu extremists blamed Christians
for the sacrilege and announced plans to hold
a rally in the area on December 25.
Christians asked local authorities to ban the
event, since previous rallies in the area at
Christmas time have resulted in violent attacks.
In a rally held during Christmas week 1998,
Hindu extremists destroyed several Christian
churches and institutions and attacked many
individuals.
"Tight police security was maintained in
the Christian-dominated areas, particularly
the tribal district of the Dangs, which has
a history of Hindu-Christian clashes during
Christmas celebrations, " The Hindu daily
newspaper reported.
All India Christian Council condemns Hindutva
forces for false allegation upon the peace loving
Christian community and harassing Christmas
celebration. Christian Council also appeals
to police forces to protect and provide the
constitutional rights to Christian minorities.
Mr. Madhu Chandra
Regional Secretary
All India Christian Council
Mobile: 9868184939
www.aiccindia. org
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