Police in India arrest 22 Christian missionaries
Pastor Dale Morgan
Police in India arrest 22 Christian missionaries*
Missionaries are charged with proselytising and forced conversion.
District where incident occurred is a Hindu nationalist stronghold.
Local bishop denounces intensely anti-Christian atmosphere.
Hyderabad (AsiaNewsWires) – Police in the southern Indian state of
Karnataka confirmed that it took 22 Christian missionaries into custody
last Tuesday on charges of trying to convert people in the district of
Dharwad district. The arrest came when villagers in Bada village alleged
that the missionaries handed out pamphlets in favour of Christianity and
against Hindu gods, which they said were “made of paper” with “no
power”. Residents also claimed that they were offered money to convert
to Christianity.
In arresting the missionaries police seized the material in the latter’s
possession, saying that they appealed to villagers to become Christians
to lead a happy life.
All 22 of them appeared before a magistrate in Dharwad who charged them
under sections 298, (making statements intended to wound religious
feelings), 448 (house trespass) and 504 (intentional insult with intent
to breach the peace), and then released them on bail.
Local Christians noted that the area is a stronghold of the Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS, a Hindu fundamentalist paramilitary group) and
that local Hindus are quite communally sensitive.
More recently, on February 26 of this year, the ‘Dharwad District
Minority Christian Welfare Association’ staged a protest against
spiralling anti-Christian violence.
Following their march Christians called on the government to act against
“fundamentalist forces” that have been attacking local Christians for
months.