A mob armed with axes and thick wooden batons in central India disrupted a home worship service and beat and threatened Christians for leaving their ancestral tribal religion this month, sources said.
Eight Christians were injured and five of them hospitalized, including two women and a pastor who suffered head injuries and a dislocated shoulder, in the March 8 assault on a house church meeting in Surguda village, Bastar District in Chhattisgarh state, said the pastor, Samson Baghel.
Methodist Church Pastor Baghel, who lives in a nearby village, and 20 other Christians from surrounding areas had come to the home of Jaggu Kashyap for the meeting with the only three Christian families who live in Surguda village. Five of the Christians attacked sustained head injuries.
“Some church members caught hold of my hand and asked me to escape, but I said I will not leave the church members to face the tribulation alone,” Pastor Baghel told Morning Star News. “After I fell on the ground when struck twice on my head and my shoulders, church members pulled me aside, and I helplessly watched Jaggu and his family being beaten till blood oozed out of their bodies.”
Tthe approximately 30 tribal animists told the resident Christians to leave the village and ordered the visitors to never return, the pastor said.
After the onslaught, the mob collected 10 to 12 Bibles, songbooks and household belongings including chairs, table and carpet, piled them outside and set them on fire, the pastor said. They also damaged nine motorbikes and four bicycles, tearing out tires, pulling out wiring and breaking glass parts, he said.
Police Response
Officers at Kodenar police station initially refused to heed several calls by victims and local Christian leaders, sources said.
The attack took place shortly before 7 p.m., and only after the intervention of the district superintendent of police did police arrive at 12:30 a.m. from the station nine miles away, victims said.
The hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, against non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say.
India ranked 10th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2021 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, as it was in 2020. The country was 31st in 2013, but its position worsened after Modi came to power.
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