Hindu radicals attack a house church and beats up pastor in Karnataka state, India.
By James Varghese
07/28/09 INDIA (ANS) -- A group of Hindu radicals barged into a house church called St. Thomas Evangelical Church of India and beat up pastor and vandalized church and house furniture's at Hassan in Karnataka state, India, on Sunday, July 26.
This news was carried on the website www.persecution.in and their story said that this incident took place at around 9.30 am on Sunday morning when Pastor Basanth Kumar (26) was conducting a prayer meeting in his house church.
As he was leading the prayer gathering, a group of 10 members belonging to a Hindu radical group called Sangh Parivar, interrupted the meeting by barging into the house church and the started to beat the pastor up.
The website also reported that after they had beaten the pastor, they destroyed all the valuable household items and furniture's of the house church.
Then the Hindu radicals had the audacity to call the local police station and complained that the pastor was involved in "forceful conversion activities."
According to the website, the police arrived to the spot and arrested Pastor Basanth Kumar at around 10.30 am. After the arrest of the pastor, the Hindu radicals took away Bibles and hymn books falsely alleging that these were the thin gs used for conversion activity and then they handed them over to the police.
The news site reported that, at the police station, the police officials asked the pastor about his involvement in the conversion activity and they allowed him to go after taking his signature on a blank sheet of paper on the condition that the pastor would present himself in the police station whenever summoned.
It was known from the website that the police have lodged a case against Pastor Kumar alleging "forceful conversion."
The next day on 27th July at around 6.00 pm, the police took Pastor Basanth again to the police station for further enquiry the website added.
Pastor Basanth Kumar is married to Mickey (24) and they have have three children.
