80 injured in attack on Christian meeting in India

DURG, India — More than 80 people were injured in an attack on a large Christian meeting Jan. 16 in Chhattisgarh state’s Durg district, followed the next day by an assault that hurt at least a dozen Christians at a missionary camp in Dhamtari district. The Hindu extremist attacks come within weeks of unprecedented anti-Christian violence in neighboring Orissa state.

In the Durg district violence, Christians said it was no coincidence that Hindu nationalist extremists launched the attack as the political arm of the militants, the Bharatiya Janata Party, was holding a public meeting in the area. “The attackers, who were from the extremist group Dharam Sena (Army for Religion), came in four trucks, beat Christians and others who were attending the healing meeting and vandalized the makeshift structure,” said Pastor Arpan Tarun of the Chhattisgarh Pastors’ Fellowship.