PETROPAVL, Kazakhstan — At least eight separate meetings for worship in Kazakhstan were raided by the authorities in January, according to Forum 18 news service. Raids on Baptists were made, police claimed, “to counter manifestations of religious extremism and terrorism.”
It seems that some raids — which police insist were not raids — took place after official monitoring of the religious communities.
Speaking of a raid on Jehovah’s Witnesses, police Major Kanat Rakhmetzhanov told Forum 18 that: “It is not against the law to gather to watch football, read poetry or drink vodka. But our lads wouldn’t have gone to such a meeting for no reason. We had reliable information that prayers were being said.”
Police gave evidence that Pastor Aleksandr Kerker illegally “stood at the pulpit and read Psalms from the Bible, then those present sang Christian hymns.”
Fines for the unregistered exercise of religious freedom were imposed on three Baptist pastors. They were each fined the equivalent of nearly two months average wages for this “offense.”
Share with others: