CHIRAYINKEEZZH, India — Christians suffered serious head injuries, expulsion from home and incarceration based on false witness as Hindu extremists continued their reign of terror in India in March, sources said.
In the southern state of Kerala, some 100 Hindu extremists March 10 attacked a Brethren Assembly church service in Chirayinkeezzh village, Trivandrum District, beating the Christians with wooden clubs; one church member sustained a serious head injury, Pastor M. Anil Kumar said.
Area Brethren Assembly leader K.V. Varghese said police arrested three of the assailants after Christians filed a complaint. Hindu extremists protested the arrests by calling for an all-day strike March 12.
In Madhya Pradesh in central India, two Christian leaders were arrested after Hindu extremists beat them and falsely accused them of forceful conversion.
State police arrested Pastor Isaac Rajamani and evangelist Raju Shikaria on Feb. 18 after Hindu extremists beat them Feb. 16 in a village near Khandwa, said Friends Missionary Prayer Band leader Jaisingh Sugumaran. The extremists mounted the attack at the Gulai village home of a sick couple who had invited Rajamani and Shikaria to pray for them.
Christodan Takri, a church leader in Amar Jyoti, told Morning Star News the Hindu extremists March 1 beat the family of Rabinarayana Marandi, took their mobile phone and drove them from the village.
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