ICC Note:
Christians in Jharkhand state in India are facing continued persecution for worshiping Christ. One month after being assaulted by Hindu radicals, Christians in Hunter village have been attacked and threatened again by both Hindu radicals and local police for continuing to worship Christ. Hindu radicals have now told the Christians of Hunter village that they will kill them if they do not stop worshiping and police have threatened to fine the Christians for the same reason. Religious freedom in India has seriously deteriorated since the BJP took power in the central government in May 2014. Many Hindu radicals believe the government is ‘tacitly approving’ of their activities because government leaders are yet to specifically condemn their actions.
6/29/2016 India (Morning Star News) – A month after a crowd of village Hindus in Jharkhand state, India summoned 25 Christians, tied up six of them and beat them with sticks, some of the assailants ran into one of the Christians and asked if he was still worshiping Christ.
The Hindu extremists in Hunter village, Palamu District came across Gunni Bhuiya on June 14 on an area road. Bhuiya told them he still believed in and worshiped Christ, and the Hindu extremists manhandled him and threatened to kill him, Christian leaders said.
“They told Bhuiya that as the Christians are still worshiping Christ even after they had received severe beatings, they were now going to kill them,” area pastor Sanjay Kumar Ravi told Morning Star News.
Area Christians are living in fear as the Hindu extremist forbid them to worship, boycott them economically and threaten to kill them, while police threatened to fine them if they continued worshiping publicly, the leaders said.
Hindu extremists led by Dilip Chandra, Ram Chandra Vanshi and Dil Narayan Yadav on May 8 summoned the 25 Christians from six families to a public meeting, forcing them into vehicles and taking them to a middle school on the outskirts of the village.
“About 100 people from three neighboring villages were waiting when we reached the place and started to tell us that it is wrong for us to pray to Jesus and that we should follow Hinduism and perform puja (Hindu rituals) to the idols only,” Pastor Ravi said.
The Christians refused. Rather, Pastor Ravi began sharing his testimony with the crowd, saying Christ had healed him from an illness in 2007, and that he has followed Him since then.
“The pastor’s testimony enraged the crowd more,” the Rev. Akash Nandi, an area Christian leader, told Morning Star News, “and they started to beat him and the other five Christian men while they shouted that they should renounce Christ or else they will kill them. They told them to chant, ‘Jai Shri Ram [Hail Lord Ram],’ perform the puja and worship the idols there and then.”
When the Christians refused, the furious Hindu extremists threatened to kill and bury them.
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