Saturday, March 02, 2013

Two attacks rattle Christian community in Sarguja Chhattisgarh


Chhattisgarh state saw two more incidents agianst the already persecuted and targeted Christian community.

On February 21, 2012 the police arrested four pastors after Hindutva activists accused them of forceful conversion in Aara which comes under district Sarguja in Chhattisgarh .

It was reported that Calvary Gospel Mission led by Pastor Albis Bara had organised a three day revival meeting. The meeting reportedly had police protection and had two policemen guarding the venue.

On the second day after the meetings and subsequent dinner was finished, Hindu extremists from Shiv Sena stormed into the meeting place along with police people.

The police took the Pastor (s) Albis Bara, Akshay Kumar, Harendra and Angad Singh to the police station on the pretext of ‘talking’, where they were then arrested under Sections 151 of the Indian Penal Code. The section penalizes people for knowingly joining or continuing in assembly of five or more persons after it has been commanded to disperse. This charge was levied against the Pastors when the meeting was having police protection in the first place, which makes the meeting valid.

The pastors were later released on bail.

At the same time in the same district of Sarguja, Christians In Doeri village, were forced to stop a three day special meeting after Hindu extremists attacked them.

The believers Church had organized the meeting which too was targeted on the second day by Hindutva activists. They made the usual allegations about forceful conversion against Christians and created trouble for the 1000 plus people who had gathered peacefully there. In order to calm down the situation the leaders of the Church decided to discontinue the meeting and no police complaint was registered.