The United States Congress recently sent a letter to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) urging him to condemn the recent wave of attacks against Christians. (Reuters)
A group of 35 Christians distributing New Testaments Bibles and Gospel tracts in India were harassed by radical Hindu nationalists and handed over to local police.
International Christian Concern, a U.S based non-profit charity, whose concern is the human rights of Christians and religious minorities, reported Tuesday the believers were told that they were no longer allowed to distribute their literature, despite the fact that they had received prior permission from police.
The incident took place on October 11 in Basuguda village, located in Chhattisgarh.
The radicals seized the literate and shouted at the Christians with abusive language, a pastor only identified as Joseph from the Hebron Assembly told International Christian Concern (ICC).
“We had taken permission to do the outreach work, but the radicals behaved ruthlessly,” Pastor Joseph said, according to ICC.
“Even though we had permission to do outreach in seven villages, we had to wind up the work after second village,” Pastor Joseph continued. “The police told us that we could not continue. It is sad that the police followed the instruction of the radicals. They were supposed to give us protection and allow us to continue our peaceful work of distribution.”
Across India, ICC reports that attacks on religious minorities continue to rise both in number and in severity.
A recent report by the Alliance Defending Freedom, revealed that Christians in India have already endured 218 attacks in 2019 alone. “With local police often siding with the perpetrators of this violence, it is likely that attacks on religious minorities will continue to escalate,” ICC reported.
