Baptist kids interrogated in Turkmenistan

Baptist kids interrogated in Turkmenistan

OSLO, Norway — Officers of the secret police in Turkmenistan have ordered children of Baptist parents to be taken from their school classes and interrogated about “internal church life and their Christian education in their families” in the Central Asian country, according to a Forum 18 News Service report April 11.

The Baptist church in the city of Balkanabad (formerly Nebit-Dag) in western Turkmenistan has been raided several times recently and has been banned from meeting. The church reported that the interrogation of the children was carried out by police officers, who wanted to know how many copies of the Bible their families had at home and what other religious literature they had. The church complained that the interrogations took place without the parents’ knowledge and in their absence. They added that several church members were summoned to the police.

The interrogations followed a raid by eight National Security Committee and police officials on the church’s Sunday morning worship service March 16.