04/02/2019 India (International Christian Concern) – On March 19, four Christians were attacked and violently dragged out of a private house in India’s Tamil Nadu State after Hindu radicals raided a small prayer meeting. As a part of the attack, the radicals forced the Christians to burn their own Bibles and other religious literature.
Siddappa, a Christian student, decided to host a prayer meeting at his house in the city of Hosur on March 19. This meeting was attended by Neethiraj, a member of the India Evangelical Mission, Saddiappa’s friend named Chandrakant, and another relative.
Minutes into the prayer meeting, Siddappa’s house was broken into by more than a dozen men the Christians claim are affiliated with a local Hindu radical organization called the Hindu Front. The radicals reportedly dragged the four Christians out of the house into the street outside Siddappa’s home where they were openly abused.
The radicals then collected all the Bibles and other Christian literature they could find in the house and forced the four Christians to burn the books with some petrol they had brought with them.
Speaking to The Express, Nehemiah Christie, Director of Legislation & Regulations of the Synod of Pentecostal Churches in Tamil Nadu, said, “Any Christian gatherings are now at risk of being interrupted by Hindutva forces. It is worrying to see that such groups freely intrude homes, question one’s belief, and seize articles of worship, including Bibles, and desecrate them.”
“The Hindutva ideology of intolerance and impunity is spreading in this state,” Christie explained to The Express. “It is inciting people to harass and attack religious minorities who just want to be able to practices their religion or belief peacefully.”
Across India, incidents of Christian persecution have continued to escalate. In 2018 alone, the Evangelical Fellowship of India recorded 325 incidents of religiously motivated violence against India’s Christian community.
For interviews, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org.
