Three new attacks on Christians: Bomb Attack, Police Beating, and Threats
3/10/09 India (Evangelical Fellowship of India) –
Worship meeting attacked with bomb in Bihar
A church in Bihar’s Rohtas district was attacked with bombs and bullets during the Sunday mass service on March 8, seriously injuring a pastor and four believers.
According to an EFI contact, at about 10 a.m., a man identified as Rajesh Kumar Singh hurled a bomb into the ongoing worship meeting of the Apostle James Church.
Pastor Vinod Bhaskar was shot on his left chest and was rushed to the Banaras hospital; his condition is stated to be critical. Four believers including a six-year old child received treatment in a local hospital.
Rajesh Singh had been arrested and the police seized a country-made pistol and four live cartridges from him. “Forcible conversion” in the church is stated to be the reason behind the attack as the attacker was found throwing pamphlets with anti-Christian slogans in the church premises.
Police protection is provided in the area.
Please pray for the recovery of the injured and for the safety of all the churches in India.
Pastor threatened in Uttar Pradesh
Hindu extremists falsely accused a pastor of hitting a neighbour’s car and try to forcible enter his house on March 8 in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh.
According to an EFI correspondent, Rev Sanjay Paul, at about 11 p.m., the extremists shouting abusive anti-Christian words, climbed over the fencing of Pastor K. K Vimal’s house and angrily banged on all the doors.
The extremists were threatening to destroy the church, claiming, “We will see how big a pastor you are.”
Failing to break the doors down, the extremists lodged a police complaint and went back to the pastor’s house with seven police officers.
After an enquiry, the police dropped the case, as the accusations against the pastor were found baseless.
Pastor Vimal is ministering Khristin Kalisia Church, which witnessed numbers of new believers in the recent past.
Please pray for boldness for the pastor, believers and for continued growth of the church.
Police beat 1 believer in Dehradun
Police on March 1 allegedly beat up a believer and put him in the lock-up in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
Rev V.S. Bhandari, an EFI correspondent reported that an unidentified group have disturbed “The House of Fellowship Church’ worship services by playing music at high volume at the time of the meetings from the past few months.
The church’s pastor, Kuldeep Singh lodged a police complaint against the miscreants in Patel Nagar police station on February 24.
As the believers were about to have the Sunday worship meeting on March 1, police arrived at the spot on the summoned of the other party and took Sanjay Verma, the owner of the house, to the police station.
The police beat up the believer and detained him for about two hours. They pressurized the area Christians, which gathered at the police station to support Verma, to reach a compromise with the other party.
The Christians refused to agree to the compromise as the other party insists that they will stop disturbing the meetings if the Christians stop worshipping.
The Christians shifted their meeting place to another believer’s place.
Please pray for the believers in Dehradun and a site for a church.
