News

India: Hindu radicals attack Christian pastor’s family, leaving his wife in a coma

November 15, 2019

The persecution of Christians in India continues to escalate. As Christianity continues to grow in the country, Hindu radicals are feeling increasingly threatened, and are lashing out more frequently, generally with little or no pushback from law enforcement officials, as those officials often side with the persecutors.

Please pray that peace would prevail for the Christians in India, and that the light of Holy Orthodoxy would again dawn in this land to which St. Thomas the Apostle first brought the Gospel.

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

“Hindu radicals attack Christian pastor’s family in Jharkhand, leaving his wife in a coma (photos),” AsiaNews, November 14, 2019:

New Delhi (AsiaNews) – In Jharkhand, a group of Hindu radicals attacked the family of a Christian clergyman whilst worshippers were gathered in prayer in his home church.

Rev Basant Kumar Paul heads the local Evangelical Church of the Calvary Gospel Ministry. The attack against his family took place on Tuesday in Parihara, a village in Garhwa district.

As a result of severe trauma to the head, the clergyman’s wife is now in a coma. Their son has a broken leg. Both were taken to Sadar Hospital, a local government medical facility.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Shibu Thomas, founder of Persecution Relief, an organisation dedicated to the defence of discriminated Christians in India, strongly condemned the umpteenth episode of violence against members of India’s Christian minority. The Church is praying for their healing.

Speaking about the incident, Rev Patsy David, also a Christian activist in India, noted that the family were victimised for their faith in Jesus Christ. They were attacked by “8 or 9 members of the RSS” (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), an extremist Hindu paramilitary group.

Some “fanatics came to the house church, and started abusing and beating everyone,” including the pastor’s elderly mother, and “took the pastor’s watch and other equipment.”…

What is more, “false complaints [about forced conversions]) are being filed against Catholic nuns, priests, pastors and [Protestant] believers. They strike and lynch Muslims at will. Ghar wapsi[*] have become regular features”.

All this has become normal. “The Chief Minister and others are mum about it. They should speak, loud and clear. Tribals are being harassed and forced into reconversion.”…

[*] So-called reconversion to Hinduism.