A group of pastors was arrested and severely beaten in custody after Hindu extremists disrupted a church service in Chhattisgarh state’s Durg district and accused the Christians of carrying out forced conversions.
A mob of around 35 extremists gathered outside the church gate (pictured) during a service led by Pastor Abhinav Baksh in Bhilai on 20 July. They accused the Christians of forcible conversions, shouted Hindu slogans and obscenities and sang loud hymns to their gods. A video posted on social media shows the mob shouting slogans including “Hit the traitors of the nation with shoes” and “The pride of the nation is [Hindu extremist organisation] Bajrang Dal”.
Pastor Baksh locked the church gate and doors to keep his congregation safe and called his friend Pastor Moses Logan, who requested help from Jamul police station. Pastor Logan arrived at the church premises with between 25 and thirty police who tried to placate the mob, which alleged that forcible and fraudulent conversions were going on and demanded action against the Christians.
Three churches hold separate Sunday services at the premises: the first from 8 to 10 am; the second (led by Pastor Logan) from 10 am to 1 pm; and the third (led by Pastor Baksh) from 1.30 to 4 pm.
Congregation bussed to police station
Police ordered the entire congregation of around one hundred Christians to go to the police station and organised a bus to bring them, but the bus could only hold around forty people and after it filled up police let the others go home. Video footage shows the extremists laughing and celebrating in victory as the bus prepares to leave for the police station, full of Christians.
Police officers questioned each Christian but only charged six pastors (Moses Logan, Abhinav Baksh, K. Thomas Gunta, Komal Kothari, Om Prakash Sahu and Satya Kumar). That evening the pastors were moved to Durg jail, where officers forced five of them to remove their clothes for inspection. Pastor Logan told Morning Star News, “I was spared, I guess, because I had told them that I was unwell.”
Next morning the jailer interrogated them, asking for personal details and occupations. Pastor Logan said, “Unaware of the consequences and treating the questioning as standard operating procedure, the pastors identified as such, while I told the jailer that I was in the security business, because that is what I do as a bi-vocational pastor. Upon hearing that the five were pastors, the jailer ordered them to be beaten up.”
Pastor Logan said the jailer and guards used all their strength to beat the pastors on their thighs, the backs of their knees and their buttocks with long wooden police batons. He added, “The trauma was unbearable for me. I cannot imagine the pain they endured.”
Local Christian leaders and family members secured bail for the pastors, who were all released on the evening of 21 July. The five who had been beaten were left with visible lacerations and Pastor Logan said they were traumatised and fearful.
He told Morning Star News, “The Christian community is no longer safe in their homes, in churches, and now they are not safe even inside jails. Those we run to for protection, safety and justice are the ones who show partiality and injustice, beat us instead, and make us regret that we trusted them. Seeking refuge from the police is a dangerous proposition.”
Pastor Logan added, “Here in Chhattisgarh they [Hindu extremist groups] are targeting all the smaller churches. In Bastar, many churches have been shut down. Even funerals are not allowed; they are not allowing Christians to bury their dead. Christians are not permitted to celebrate their birthdays. Hindu extremists target every private celebration taking place in Christian homes. They barge into homes, disrupt their joy, create chaos, falsely accuse them of carrying out forced conversions and register false complaints against the Christians.”
Around four hundred Christians protested in front of Jamul police station on the afternoon of 22 July, demanding the arrest of the Hindu extremists; the screenshot shows police talking with some of them.
Police told the Christians to submit a memorandum, which was received on 24 July, appealing for concrete action from police against the extremists and condemning the criminal charges and subsequent beating of the pastors in the jail. However, police also informed Pastor Logan that a First Information Report had been registered against him and three other pastors relating to their participation in the protest.
(Morning Star News)
Images: screenshots from Morning Star News and from a local source