New Delhi, India - About 20 extremists in Karnataka state’s Hassan district on Sunday (November 25) stormed a worship service, dragged out two pastors and another believer, stripped them and beat them after tying them to a pole.
The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that pastors C.J. Joemon and C.J. Jojo and another believer, G. Anil, were attacked while they and about 15 others worshipped at Christ Vision Church, a house church associated with the Indian Pentecostal Church, in Balupette village in the Shakleshpur area.
“At around 10 a.m., at least 20 unidentified Hindu fundamentalists forcefully entered the house church and started abusing the pastors and believers,” Dr. Sajan K. George, national president of the GCIC, told Compass. “The fundamentalists threatened the believers and chased them away.”
After burning the believers’ Bibles, the Hindu extremists stripped Joemon, Jojo and Anil, and dragged them to the village junction about 500 meters away, George said.
“The three Christians were tied to a pole and kicked and punched by the gang,” he added.
The Hindu extremists continued to abuse the Christians till about 2 p.m., when seven policemen arrived and took the three victims to the police station.
“However, instead of protecting the Christians, the police charged the pastors with ‘forced conversion,’” George said, adding that officials refused to give medical aid to the Christians until the GCIC intervened.
The two pastors were later released on bail.
Asked why the attackers were not booked, Constable Krishna Gowda of the Shakleshpur rural police station pleaded ignorance, saying the sub-inspector handling the case was not available.
The Christians refused to press charges against their attackers, saying they had forgiven them. Joemon is 22 years old, and Jojo is 25. The house church started in the area three months ago.
Persecution High in Karnataka
In a similar incident, a mob of Hindu extremists on June 8 beat Pastor Laxmi Narayan Gowda, an independent pastor and representative of the GCIC, in Hessarghatta, about 30 kilometers from Bangalore, the state capital.
The attackers tried to set the pastor on fire before parading him naked in the area.
George said the incidence of anti-Christian attacks was highest in Karnataka. “The GCIC has documented atrocities against Christians in the last 20 months, according to which Karnataka has the worst record in this period with 87 cases,” he said.
He added the attacks were linked to the Bharatiya Janata Party, which in coalition with the Janata Dal-Secular or JD(S) took power from the Congress Party in February 2006. The coalition government, however, could not last its term, and a state assembly election is expected soon.
Effect of Political Turmoil
The state assembly of Karnataka was dissolved yesterday (November 28), after a split in the BJP-JD(S) coalition.
The tensions between the two parties began after the JD(S) refused to allow the BJP to appoint a chief minister from their party, as promised earlier as a condition for forming the alliance.
The JD(S) refused to transfer power to the BJP after its victory in a civic election late September, after which it wanted to form the government without the BJP.
But after H.D. Kumaraswamy from the JD(S) finally stepped down from the chief minister’s office, BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa was sworn in as the new chief minister on November 9. A new quarrel arose between the two parties, however, and Yeddyurappa too had to resign on November 19.
In the wake of the strained relationship between the two parties, the JD(S) said that the BJP was trying to make Karnataka a “laboratory of Hindutva,” according to national daily The Hindu on October 7.
Hindutva is a Hindu nationalist ideology which claims that India is essentially a land of Hindus, where religious minorities should live in subordination to the majority community.