Hindu extremists confront church members in Raipur, India on March 9, 2025. (Morning Star Information screenshot of video)
NEW DELHI (Morning Star Information) – A Christian charged below India’s anti-conversion regulation after Hindu nationalists attacked a church is searching for anticipatory bail from the Supreme Court docket of India.
Rajesh Sharma stated his plea for anticipatory bail was rejected in Chhattisgarh state’s decrease and excessive courts. Sharma and the others had been booked after a mob of 70 to 100 hardline Hindus led by members of the Hindu nationalist Bajarang Dal minimize {the electrical} energy of the 120-member Church of God in Raipur and attacked them throughout their March 9 worship service.
“The mob was accompanied by few policemen, they usually attacked within the presence of police – who stood there as mere spectators, as they had been only a few in numbers,” stated 66-year-old Senior Pastor Praveen Lawrence of the Church of God in Raipur.
The Hindu mob shouted slogans like “Jai Jai Shri Ram [Praise lord Rama],” “Cease conversions” and “Eliminate these finishing up conversions,” together with derogatory phrases in Hindi not included in these translations.
Vandalizing vehicles and two-wheelers belonging to congregation members, the mob struck the automobiles with church chairs, broke surveillance cameras after which assaulted 4 Christians who sustained accidents, together with two girls, Pastor Lawrence stated.
“They actually tried very exhausting to interrupt open the church door – they broken the partitions supporting the door making an attempt to get inside,” Vipin Lawrence, 38, junior pastor and son of Pastor Lawrence, advised Morning Star Information. “If they might have succeeded, many Christians would have been assaulted and wounded, apart from your entire infrastructure contained in the church that might have gotten broken.”
The mob assaulted the Christians as some members of the congregation got here out the church corridor to talk to them, with Hindu males beating Christian males and Hindu girls attacking Christian girls.
“They hit us with chairs, lengthy wood sticks, fists, sneakers and slippers,” stated Vipin Lawrence, whose brow was wounded.
The mob seized him whereas he was talking to them and hit him with wood sticks and fists, apart from kicking him; considered one of them was carrying one thing on his hand that was sharp, Vipin Lawrence stated.
“Somebody hit me on the pinnacle with a wood stick, and there was darkness earlier than my eyes,” he stated. “I didn’t know the place I used to be standing. A church member pulled me out of the mob and the police took us contained in the church to forestall additional accidents.”
Abhishek Samson was assaulted and attacked with a pointy object; he was uncertain if it was a knife or a pointy plastic object. He sustained a deep minimize beneath his chest close to a rib.
The mob beat a 45-year-old girl repeatedly with footwear. A 24-year-old younger girl was manhandled and sustained a muscle pull after she was yanked by her arm, and the assault left her thumb bleeding.
“We don’t resort to violent means and didn’t retaliate,” stated Pastor Lawrence. “The police had been our witnesses, and the disaster befell within the presence of the police.”
He added that the mob was nonetheless attacking even after police reinforcements arrived. Finally officers had been capable of rescue all church members, together with many who had secured themselves contained in the church corridor.
The mob shattered automobile windshields, broken a TV, digital camera, washbasin, water dispenser, taps, pots, helmets, footwear that congregation members had eliminated earlier than coming into the corridor and vandalized bikes and scooters with wood sticks.
Officers escorted Vipin Lawrence and 50 church members via the frenzied mob to the native police station in a police van. Officers interrogating them additionally requested their addresses, names, faith and identification earlier than releasing them at 8:30 p.m.
A big crowd of greater than 100 Hindu extremists gathered outdoors the police station demanding arrests.
“As every Christian emerged, the mob would encompass them, hurl insults at them and verbally abuse them,” stated Vipin Lawrence. “We confronted in depth harassment each from the Hindu extremists and from the police.”
Sharma, Abhishek Samson, Priyesh Kumar and Munna Guard, the watchman of the church premises, had been named in First Info Report (FIR) No. 78, filed by Manish Verma in Amanaka police station in Raipur District on March 9. They had been charged below the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which prohibits prison intimidation, insulting non secular beliefs, voluntarily inflicting damage, obscene acts and defiling a spot of worship, and below the Chhattisgarh Spiritual Freedom Act of 1968 prohibiting non secular conversion by drive or allurement.
“Rajesh Sharma is neither a member of our church, nor was he current within the church on the day of the assault, but he has been named within the FIR,” stated Vipin Lawrence.
The Christians deliberate to proceed with anticipatory bail purposes one by one, in order that the opposite three will apply solely after Sharma obtains a good court docket order, defined the junior pastor.
Sudden Objection
The church had worshipped with out incident or objection for 18 years after Pastor Lawrence constructed the church constructing in 2007, he stated.
Tensions started after a colony assembly on Feb. 23, when Hindus proposed to construct a temple within the widespread space close to the church web site. The church had transformed a portion of its land right into a play space for the youngsters of the colony.
Representatives of the 5 to seven Christian households within the colony consented to the Hindu temple building however prompt it ought to be constructed an applicable distance from the church in order that the worship sounds wouldn’t intervene with one another.
“We don’t want the Christian capabilities like Christmas and weddings to trigger any sort of disturbance to the Hindu neighborhood worshiping within the temple,” Pastor Lawrence advised the group.
In accordance with the senior pastor, one other Christian on the assembly stated, “It could damage non secular sentiments if a canine had been to hold a rooster bone from the church premises and by accident drop it close to the temple. It might be perceived as Christians having eaten and purposely thrown the bone in the direction of the temple, inflicting misunderstanding and disrupting the peace and concord amongst the group.”
Some folks on the assembly shared these feedback with Hindu nationalists from outdoors the colony, who got here and “misrepresented the phrases as, ‘The Christians will eat rooster and throw the bone in the direction of the Hindu temple and defile the Hindu temple,’” Vipin Lawrence stated.
Within the weeks following the March 9 assault, residents constructed the Hindu temple in a standard space that was supposed to be used by all of the colony residents, Vipin Lawrence stated.
On Good Friday (April 18), Hindus performed loud Hindu worship songs in the course of the church service, inflicting important “disruption not solely to the church service however to your entire colony residents as effectively,” he stated.
On the identical day the Christians had been charged, Vipin Lawrence filed a counter- criticism on the Amanaka police station below FIR No. 79 towards 4 recognized attackers along with unidentified assailants.
No arrests have been made on both aspect based mostly on the complaints.
A decrease court docket denied Sharma’s anticipatory bail plea, and on April 9 the Excessive Court docket rejected it.
“We plan to maneuver to the Supreme Court docket this week,” Vipin Lawrence stated on Tuesday (April 29). “Based mostly on Rajesh’s bail, we’ll apply for the others within the decrease court docket.”
Christian help group Open Doorways ranks India 11th on its 2025 World Watch Listing of nations the place Christians face essentially the most extreme persecution. India stood at 31st place in 2013 however has steadily fallen within the rankings since Narendra Modi got here to energy as prime minister.
Spiritual rights advocates level to the hostile tone of the Nationwide Democratic Alliance authorities, led by the Hindu nationalist BJP, which they are saying has emboldened Hindu extremists in India since Modi took energy in Could 2014.
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