Christians Arrested In Indian State of Chhattisgarh -- April 21, 2010

Since the passage of a controversial anti-conversion law by the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, Christians have come under increased persecution.  Officials recently confirmed that four Christians, including three evangelists and a police officer, have been jailed for “converting” Hindus to Christianity after they were injured in an attack by Hindus last Saturday.

According to a spokesman of the Evangelical Fellowship of India “the Christians were sent to Durg jail” near the city of Bhilai, where the April 15 attack took place.  The problems had begun earlier that day when young members of the hard line Hindu groups Bajrang Dal and Dharam Sena attacked members of the Brethren Assembly in Bhilai as they were distributing Christian materials.

The All-India Christian Council stated that “Christians were injured and [still] suffer of cuts and bruises on [their] bodies.”  When police arrived on the scene they requested that the evangelists stop distributing their literature and warned the Hindu militants not to take the law into their own hands.

The Christian were taken to a nearby police station where a crowd of Hindu militants had already gathered.  The crowd began to beat the evangelists with wooden sticks and demanded their arrest under the anti-conversion law.  When a Christian police officer tried to free the men, he was charged with violating the anti-conversion law.

The next day hundreds of Christians gathered to protest and demand that those arrested by released.  Meanwhile the All-India Christian Council said it would appeal to India’s National Commission for Minorities and Human Rights.

The persecution of Christians in India is not limited to the state of Chhattisgarh.  On March 29 in the state of Kerala, Christians were briefly detained on what evangelical leaders called “false accusations” of “denigrating Hindu gods.”  Those arrested included three children and a woman. Pastor Easow Varghese, his wife and three small sons, and Evangelist Biju P. George were returning home from showing a [Christian] film.  EFI official Samuel Varghese said that “about eight extremists blocked the Christians with two motorbikes [and] more extremists suddenly appeared with sticks and started beating Varghese and George. The Christians sustained minor injuries.”

Pressured by militants police briefly detained the Christians — including the two children of nine and five years and a four-months-old infant — before releasing them without charges amid protests from local Christian leaders, officials said.

The AICC and EFI said they have “urged Christians to pray for all the suffering Christians and for peace and religious tolerance in India.”

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