Today's Update: Attack on Private Gathering in Northern India Typifies Hindu Extremist Strategy
A Hindu extremist
strategy for stopping the spread of Christianity by targeting pastors –
and their families – was painfully evident in a recent attack on a
Christmas planning meeting in northern India.
As has become
routine in India, police arrested badly beaten Christians and charged
them with causing religious enmity, sources said.
Pastors from 12
churches in Agra, Uttar Pradesh state and from 10 churches in nearby
Mathura were meeting, along with their families, in the Hotel Samover in
Agra on Oct. 30 to plan a Christmas program when Hindu extremists
arrived and began terrorizing them, sources said.
“They did not
engage in any kind of dialogue with us but abruptly entered the hall
where we were conducting our private gathering and ruthlessly attacked
us,” pastor Ravi Kumar said of the assailants from the Bajrang Dal, the
militant youth wing of the Hindu extremist Vishwa Hindu
“They were
shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ [Hail, Lord Ram]!” while they hit us
black-and-blue, and some men from the mob tore the clothes of the women
and dragged them by their hair,” Pastor Kumar told Morning Star News.
Young men were
stationed on the staircase leading to the exit to beat those trying to
escape, while other assailants waited at the reception area.
Panic-stricken Christians running toward the exit could not escape; some
who were beaten in the basement hall were caught at the staircase and
beaten again, and then again at the reception area, sources said.
“They had brought
along about 20 young men who were assigned the task of entering the hall
and attacking the Christians with the weapons they carried and then
immediately leaving the premises and disappearing,” Pastor Kumar said.
“After they left,
the middle-aged Hindu extremists began to create a scene and started to
accuse us of carrying out conversions. Before the police arrived, the
young men who had carried out the attack had left.”
The assault went
on for 45 minutes before police from the Tajganj police station arrived –
and arrested the Christians. Officers registered a case against the
Christians within four hours of the assault while taking no action
against the assailants, sources said.
