TEWARDIH, India — Police in India initially declined to take action after Hindu extremists tortured one Christian and severely beat another, sources said.
In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, Hindu extremists in Tewardih, Varanasi, who have long insisted that a 30-year-old convert from Hinduism, Joginder Gold, stop worshipping Christ, took him to a farmhouse April 9 and tortured him.
Police later took Gold to a government hospital. When area Christian leaders submitted a police complaint against the assailants, however, officers took no action and instead cast into question the legality of Gold’s conversion, asking when he had converted and “who converted” him, according to Pastor Patsy David.
On the same day in Saidpur Garur, Jaunpur, about 31 miles from Varanasi, Hindu extremists severely beat a 57-year-old pastor, sources said.
Area Christian leaders and relatives of the pastor called the police. “Initially the local police refused to take our complaint and told us to leave the area and go back to our native place, Kerala,” an area Christian said. “They even told us to rewrite our complaint and delete many of the details.”
Area Christian leaders intervened, however, approaching higher officials and submitting a new complaint against the attackers. Police registered a case against the Hindu extremists, but they absconded, and at press time no arrests had been made.
(MS)
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