Mumbai (AsiaNews) - A crowd of more than 100 Hindu extremists have attacked and beaten a Pentecostal Christian community in Udumalpet, the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The attack took place on November 16 and was confirmed to AsiaNews, by the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC).
The Rev. K.A. Sathis, pastor of Konkal Marthoma Church, and four faithful are hospitalized in serious condition. Some attackers even followed the victims to the hospital, threatening them and attacking them a second time.
Before breaking into the church, where the community was holding a prayer service, the radical group destroyed more than 20 vehicles parked in Church yard. Once inside, the militants attacked those present, desecrated the altar, burned the Bibles and broke musical instruments.
Sajan K George, president of the Global
Council of Indian Christians (GCIC)
has already asked for protection for the
Christian community of the state from
the National Commission for Human
Rights, the chief minister
of Tamil Nadu and the Minister of Interior of the Central Government of India.
"We strongly condemn this anti-Christian violence - Sajan George told AsiaNews
- It spreads a
culture that holds religious
conversions to be illegal, even if the article 25 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of worship". According to the GCIC president, "the
police silence in responding to this violence remains a pervasive problem for the
tiny Christian minority in India."