News

India: Hindu fundamentalists destroy church under construction

June 8, 2021

Hindu extremist mobs continue to target Christians. All too frequently, police who are sympathetic to the attackers just stand idly by, as we see in this case: “This persecution has been going on for four years now, but investigations into these complaints are being carried out only formally, because the authorities are Hindu.” 

Christianity goes back to apostolic times in India but is still regarded as a foreign faith. The Christians of India are in urgent need of prayers and support from the international human rights community.

For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in India, see here.

“Orissa, Hindu fundamentalists destroy church under construction,” by Nirmala Carvalho, Asia News, May 27, 2021:

Mumbai (AsiaNews) – In Orissa, a crowd of Hindu extremists attacked a church under construction in an area that has long been marked by serious violence against Christians.

Father Purushottam Nayak, a priest of the diocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, told AsiaNews: “On May 16, about 150 armed people demolished a church under construction in the village of Bodoguda, in the Koraput district. In the village 12 Christian tribal families who live with 60 Hindu families are victims of anger, jealousy and revenge only for their faith”.

Debo Bhoi, a member of the local Christian community, together with pastors Ayub Khora, Jitendra Khosla, Sudhakar Khosla, filed a complaint with the Koraput police station demanding compensation. This persecution has been going on for four years now, but investigations into these complaints are being carried out only formally, because the authorities are Hindu. And the lack of action against the perpetrators of attacks against Christians only encourages new ones.

Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (Gcic), comments to AsiaNews: “This new attack against the Christians of the village of Bodogua is not spontaneous. The crowd was armed. Last year 8 Christians including one elderly person had been brutally assaulted by a group of Hindu extremists: on 21 July 2020 they entered the house of 75-year-old Chachiri Muduli, which was hosting seven Christians whose homes had been destroyed by the fanatics themselves. Not only did they beat them mercilessly, but also ransacked that building”….Alongside a question of order, there is a serious problem that affects religious freedom”.