NEW DELHI — Under pressure from Hindu extremists, local officials kept a church from meeting on Good Friday in India’s Uttar Pradesh state and ordered the pastor to vacate the property, the church leader said.
Pastor Daniel Singh of Salvation for Asia Church in Swar said his two-year lease of the land allowed him to build a worship site, but Hindu extremists in the northern state have been threatening to burn his church building if he does not leave the property.
“The extremists summoned me one night to one of their meetings and they threatened to burn up the church if we do not empty the land,” Singh said. “The Bharatiya Janata Party district president also threatened to terminate the job of one church member if he continues to come to our worship meetings.”
Local officials kept the church from its Good Friday services after the Hindu extremists submitted a complaint against the pastor of “forceful conversion” to police and warned him to vacate the property. On April 8 the Rampur District magistrate ordered the pastor to immediately vacate the land where about 1,000 people regularly worship.
“We have rented land to build a structure for conducting worship meetings and we have two more years to conduct worship services according to the lease deed we made with the landlord,” Singh said. “However, pressured by the Hindu extremists, the government official along with the landlord is telling us to vacate the land as soon as possible.”
Hindu extremists first objected to worship services March 28 when they accused the pastor and other church members of forceful conversion. Uttar Pradesh does not have an “anti-conversion” law, routinely used by Hindu extremists in more than five other Indian states to harass Christians with false charges of forcible or fraudulent conversion.
(MS)
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