ICC Note:
Following an assault by police and Hindu extremist, Pastor Rameshwar Mishra has been forced into hiding. The conflict originates with a revival ministry Pastor Mishra would lead, something police and Hindu extremists claimed were being used to forcefully convert Hindus to Christianity. Hindu extremists often accuse Christian pastors of forceful conversion as a cover for assault and harassment. As attacks on Christians in India continue to increase, it is also likely that more accusations of forced conversions against Christian pastors will increase.
01/27/2017 India (Morning Star News) – Months after Hindu extremists and police attacked a revival meeting in northern India and shut down a church, one pastor is in hiding, and officers prohibit another from praying with members of the scattered congregation in their homes.
Members of the once-thriving church, where evangelistic events used to draw crowds of 5,000 people, either have to travel long distances to worship or are meeting secretly in homes.
Hindu extremists attacked the evangelistic meeting at the church site in Sitaram Purwa, Sitapur District, on Sept. 18, accusing Pastor Rameshwar Mishra of “witchcraft” for serving Communion bread and wine, the 41-year-old church leader told Morning Star News. Four police officers later joined in the assault.
Days before the event, when the pastor informed police of court permission to stage it, police officers told him to cancel the revival and began disparaging him in coarse language for leaving Hinduism, he said. Pastor Mishra, who became a Christian in 2009 and helped found the church four years ago, said the officer in-charge became so angry that day, Sept. 14 that he jailed him. After obtaining the church leader’s personal, church and baptism documents, and the officer let him go but warned him not to evangelize, he said.
The pastor said God told him to proceed with the event, which drew 3,500 people.
“The police patrolled on that Saturday [Sept. 17], warning the villagers not to attend the meeting,” he said.
As a worship leader sang an hour into the scheduled five-hour event, a Hindu extremist identified only as Babblu was already present with 15 to 20 cohorts, and some of them took the singer aside and began to assault him, rupturing his eardrum, the pastor said. Some of the assailants also caught hold of the singer’s sister and struck her, to a lesser degree, before Pastor Mishra arrived.
The four police officers arrived and joined the Hindu extremists, kicking and hitting Pastor Mishra, whose clothes were torn in the assault, he said. The officer in-charge of the police station arrived soon after, followed by a bus full of policemen called in to disperse the crowd.
Police took Pastor Mishra to the Reusa police station, where officers further disparaged him. The officer in-charge threatened to keep him in custody for two weeks and to beat him until he worshipped Hindu gods and goddesses, the pastor said.
Pastor Mishra replied that he would not leave Christ even if the officer killed him.
With serious internal injuries, Pastor Mishra was freed on Sept. 23; he still does not know the official charge against him, or whether the 500 rupees (US$7.34) he paid a lawyer went toward a fine or an attorney’s fee.
A few days later, he filed a counter case against Babblu and 15 police officers, including the station officer in-charge, for brutality. Having spent about 12,000 rupees (US$175) in payments to an attorney to file it, he is upset that no hearing has taken place and there has been no movement on the case, he said.
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