Hindu extremists in Chhattisgarh state kept hundreds of Christians from a prayer service on 6 December and attacked those who managed to attend.
At the prayer service where 2,000 people were expected in Tarra Kopra village, Raipur District, only 300 Christians made it past Hindu extremist check-points, said Pastor Lachhan Ram Sahu of Blessing Prayer Hall.
On a day where a Hindu event known as a Ram Kathan was also scheduled in the area, Hindu nationalists positioned men at village entry points and asked them where they were headed, Pastor Sahu said. ‘If they said they were going to the church service, they were shooed away, and if they tried to reason with them, they were threatened and manhandled. Those who came to attend the Ram Kathan were allowed to enter the village and proceed straight to the Ram Kathan venue.’
Christian women who objected at the checkpoints were disgracefully manhandled. ‘The people who were not allowed entry into the village later reported to me that the women were caught by their throats, and their clothes were pulled in order to threaten them,’ he said.
As church began
When the worship service began at 10am, a mob of 700 hardline Hindus attacked, led by members of the Hindu extremist group Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its youth wing, Bajrang Dal, said Pastor Sahu, 34, who has been ministering in the area for five years. They struck vehicles parked outside the prayer hall with sticks and set two of them on fire. Two cars, one van, one auto-rickshaw and 100 motorbikes were destroyed, he said.
Setting up a sound system at the entrance of the prayer hall and shouting insults and threats, they surrounded the building and yelled slogans accusing Pastor Sahu of carrying out forceful conversions. ‘They said that they will carry their flag in one hand and a sword in the other and kill all those who dared to enter the prayer hall.’
Protection had been requested days before, but police turned up hours after the incidents took place.
