Pastor in India Arrested after Attack by Hindu Extremists

(Compass Direct) 6/7/2006 – A mob of Hindu extremists on Sunday (June 4) stormed a home prayer meeting in Mayapuri, Madhya Pradesh state and dragged Christians inside to a nearby temple to force them to bow before local gods, but it was the church pastor who was charged with “insulting religious beliefs.”

Among 15 Christians that police took into custody, Pastor Jagdish Bharti, 27, of the Bethel Fellowship Church , was charged with insulting religious beliefs “with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging” religious feelings.

He was released on bail of 20,000 rupees (US$435) at 6:30 p.m. yesterday (June 6), and the other 14 Christians were released on bail after four hours of interrogation on Sunday.

“Police also created a scene at the police station, colluding with the fundamentalist elements and encouraging them to beat me up the next time I am caught evangelizing,” Pastor Bharti told Compass. His hearing is scheduled for June 18.

The prayer meeting of 25 people in the Mayapuri area of Ujjain district had gone on for an hour when, at 11 a.m., a mob of about 50 men belonging to the Bajrang Dal, youth wing of the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), thronged outside the home of Ramesh Thakur and began shouting slogans against Christians.

They demanded that the pastor step outside to meet with them. Hurling accusations of destroying the Hindu faith at him, they asked Pastor Bharti to renounce his faith in Jesus and accept their god Bajrang, or Hanuman, as the one to be worshipped.

Soon after, they barged into the house and forced those inside to accompany them to a nearby Hindu temple, where they forced them to bow down before the temple gods.

Among those present for the prayer meeting were nine women and a small child who were roughed up as well. The women were threatened with rape if they did not stop attending the Christian prayer meetings.

An RSS activist lodged a complaint with the police against Pastor Bharti, accusing him of “forceful conversions” and causing social disharmony on religious grounds.

Threats and Surveillance

Pastor Bharti and Thakur, owner of the home in the Hira Mill ki Chawl neighborhood of the Mayapuri area, had been receiving threats for the last three months to stop their prayer meetings, sources told Compass.

Sources said the Hindu extremists have had the prayer meeting under surveillance for the past few months, carefully observing activities and keeping track of all who attended.

The Rev. Father Anand Muttungal, spokesman for the Madhya Pradesh Bishops’ Conference, told Compass that the arrests were part of a strategy of Hindu fundamentalists to malign Christians in Ujjain district and throughout Madhya Pradesh.

“These false charges only enable the state government to reinforce their intention to make the anti-conversion laws more stringent,” Rev. Muttungal said. “In fact, whenever such incidents take place, the chief minister actually threatens the Christians that he is going to make the law more stringent.”

The state already has a law in place outlawing forcible conversions, but Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan recently said, “If required, amendments could be considered to make it more effective.”