Over 25 Christians were injured in a church attack in Sukma district, Chhattisgarh state on 31 May. Thirteen of them were hospitalised with severe injuries, and when they were discharged from hospital and returned to their village on 14 June they found that their homes had been looted. Nine suspects arrested in connection with the attack were released on bail on 15 June.
More details have emerged about the attack and the severe injuries suffered by the thirteen Christians, who were among a congregation of around seventy gathered for Sunday morning worship in Sadrapal, a village in Sukma district, when their meeting was disrupted by a group of between forty and fifty villagers, followers of a traditional tribal religion.
Seven Christians sustained serious head injuries, three fractured their hands and two sustained severe leg injuries including Ungi Kawasi (25) who is awaiting surgery for a broken leg. One woman fractured her shoulder blade and has been in severe pain, while others sustained internal injuries and bruising.
Morning Star News reports that videos and photographs taken after the Christians were attacked show them “strewn across the floor – profusely bleeding and dishevelled – some unconscious, others disoriented and exhausted from the beating”. Pastor Hunga Madavi said, “Many lost consciousness while being beaten. All 13 are still on medication and recovering from serious injuries.”
One Christian escaped and ran to Tongpal police station, 8 km away, to report the attack. Pastor Madavi commented, “It was only when the police arrived that the assault stopped, otherwise we would have been beaten to death.”
The mob also looted money from the prayer hall, tore apart Bibles in which offerings had been kept between the pages and scattered them across the floor.
Madavi family’s ordeal
Pastor Madavi (35) was attacked along with his pregnant wife Palo Madavi (25) and their 5-year-old daughter, who was beaten with wooden sticks and sustained injuries to her legs and back.
Pastor Madavi sustained a serious head injury and collapsed unconscious from severe blood loss. He was discharged from hospital on 12 June and told Morning Star News, “My haemoglobin dropped to 3.7 grams, and three units of blood had to be transfused to save my life.”
Palo was beaten with sticks until she too lost consciousness and woke up in hospital. “I have yet to undergo a sonography to check whether my pregnancy is unaffected,” she told Morning Star News.
Describing the attack, she recalled, “Initially they stood outside both exits of the hall and pulled out one believer at a time. Every time a Christian stepped out, they beat him or her with wooden sticks, axes and sickles, to an extent unimaginable.”
The attackers then forced their way in, seizing curtain rods to add to the weapons they had brought. Pastor Madavi recalled, “They beat everyone attending the church – children as young as 2 years old and elderly as old as 70. They spared no one.”
Homes “looted beyond recognition”
Pastor Madavi’s family is one of ten tribal Christian families that have met for Sunday worship at a mud-and-thatch house in Sadrapal village since 2018, along with fifty to eighty tribal Christians from surrounding villages.
All ten Christian families left Sadrapal for medical treatment and did not return until they were were able to do so together, for fear of another attack. They returned on 14 June after attending a worship service in Sukma, to find their homes ransacked. Pastor Madavi described them as “looted beyond recognition”.
Villagers had stolen belongings including chickens, goats, grains, rice and money. Doors had been broken open and grain stores inside either looted or scattered, allowing cattle to enter and feed on whatever remained. The owner of the church hall, Kava Sidma, owned several goats but lost them all.
“I had 15 chickens,” Pastor Madavi told Morning Star News, his voice breaking. “They took all of them; killed them, cooked them and fed their families. They also stole 5,000 Rupees in cash [€46] that I had kept at home.”
Nine arrested but released on bail
A First Incident Report (FIR) was registered at Tongpal police station on the evening of the attack against ten identified people for voluntarily causing “simple hurt” (minor injury); unlawful assembly; rioting; rioting while armed with a deadly weapon; obscene acts; and criminal intimidation. Nine of the ten named in the FIR were arrested, but they were released on bail on 15 June.
Arun Pannalal, president of the Chhattisgarh Christian Forum, told Morning Star News, “The police downplayed the severity of the assault… Neither a religious angle nor a charge of ‘attempt to murder’ was included – despite blood pouring from people’s bodies.”
Pretext for attack
Local Christian leaders have rejected suggestions that the attack arose from a land dispute and said it was motivated by hostility towards the ten Christian families in Sadrapal.
Lachchu Tati, a Christian from a nearby village, said: “These Christians have been facing ostracism at the hands of the villagers for the past four-five years. The Christian families were barred from fetching water from the village’s common water source; their homes were cut off from the electricity supply; and they denied access to government-distributed free rations. Not only that, none of the Christians were permitted to cross through a non-Christian’s field or use lanes that passed through their lands… Under the guise of a land dispute, the villagers planned to rid the village of Christians.”
Pastor Madavi’s grandfather owned land that relatives continued to farm after his death. When the pastor’s father died last year, his youngest uncle had the entire property transferred into his own name, excluding Pastor Madavi’s rightful share of the land. He appealed to village elders to intervene and ensure a fair distribution of the property, and says he believes the land dispute was just a pretext for the attack. “If land was the reason, then why assault all the Christians?” he said. “The land dispute is being used as an excuse to attack us.”
(Morning Star News)
Photo credit: Morning Star News