NEW DELHI — A rash of anti-Christian attacks in March hit Haryana state in northern India, where a new chief minister spoke against Christians and 45 were severely beaten at a burial service.
A mob of more than 700 Hindu extremists assaulted the 45 Christians on March 6 as they began burial rites for an elderly Christian woman at a cemetery in Faridabad.
“The Christians were beaten very severely as the mob targeted [them] individually,” said Virendar Kumar of Bethenia Church. “Each and every Christian was being beaten up by 10–12 people from the mob. Around 35-plus Christians are hospitalized in different hospitals in Faridabad. Some are seriously injured.”
The Christians were forced to flee, taking the body of the deceased with them.
The assailants said the Christian burial ground was too close to their village, Pali, a half kilometer away, so they would not allow Christians to bury their dead there. The local administration had assigned the graveyard to the Christians and Christian churches in Faridabad have all necessary permissions and papers for it.
Sunil Salvation, president of the Faridabad Pastors Fellowship and secretary of the Faridabad Cemetery Committee, said, “This was the third plot allotted for the cemetery purposes to the Christian community in Faridabad after the old one got filled.”
A plot was first allotted to Christians in 2008 near Budhana village outside Faridabad, but strong opposition from villagers in Budhana compelled authorities to allocate another space, called Sector 8, next to Hindu and Muslim cemeteries.
Two other burials have already been conducted in this cemetery.
(MS)
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