BANGLADESH — Two Christian women in Bangladesh’s northern district of Jamalpur said village officials extorted relatively large sums of money from them — and severely beat the husband of one — for proclaiming Christ to Muslims.
Johura Begum, 42, of Pingna village said a member of the local union council, an area government representative and the father of a police officer threatened to harm her grown daughters if her family did not pay them what would equal a little more than $200 in U.S. dollars. The police officer whose father was allegedly involved in the extortion was investigating fabricated charges that Christians had paid Muslims to participate in a river baptism May 26. Only six men among 55 converts were baptized by leaders of the Pentecostal Holiness Church of Bangladesh, Christian leaders said, as the rest were intimidated by protesting Muslims.
Villagers backed by a political leader of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League party also allegedly extorted more than $3,500 from another Christian woman, 35-year-old Komola Begum of Doulatpur village, whose husband is a successful fertilizer seller.
After the baptisms in the Brahmaputra River in Mymensingh district, local Muslims beat her husband to such an extent that he received three days of hospital treatment for his injuries.
“My husband is a scapegoat — he simply does business,” she said. “But he was beaten for my faith and activities.” Police forced one of those present at the baptism, 45-year-old Hafijur Rahman, to sign a statement accusing four of the Christian leaders of offering him and others money to attend, Rahman said. He said he was illiterate and did not know what he was signing, and that he was not offered any money to go to the baptism service.
For three days after the baptisms, Jamalpur district villagers announced through bullhorns the punishment Christians would receive for their activities, chanting among other slogans, “We will peel off the skins of the Christians.”
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