Christian pastor, family attacked, terrorized

TAMIL NADU, India — A series of attacks on a Dalit Christian pastor in India’s Tamil Nadu state earlier this year ended in Hindu extremists murdering his brother in July. Pastor Paul Chinnaswamy of Krishnagiri district has also had his house vandalized, and he and his son have been arrested on unfounded charges of “forced conversion.”
 
After two attacks by Hindu extremists in April and May, the worst came July 29. Two Hindu extremists who had earlier attacked the 51-year-old pastor arrived by motor scooter at the house of his older brother, Amos, a Christian convert from Hinduism. The pastor’s brother had angrily shouted at the two extremists when they and others attacked the independent church leader earlier this year, said Sajan K. George, national president of the Global Council of Indian Christians. “The two men pulled down a small hut that was put up in front of Amos’ house and hit him with a log on his head and back,” George said. “When he fell down, they crushed his head with large boulders and threatened the shocked wife and mother-in-law that they would be killed if they, too, did not throw stones at his body.”