Police who did nothing to stop a fierce attack on a
church service in Uttar Pradesh, India
also beat and threatened the Christians
while arresting them under false
accusations of fraudulent conversions,
sources said.
A mob of 15 to 20 Hindu extremists
earlier this month assaulted men,
women and children of Heavenly
Gospel Mission Church in
Shahjahanpur District, with some
saying, “We will continue to hit you
until you abuse and curse Jesus,”
church members said.
After beating the seven men of the
congregation with wooden batons and
the 10 women and 10 children with the
church chairs, they dragged four
Christians and the Hindu owner of the
rented building outside and threatened
to kill them as they further assaulted
them near parked police cars with
officers who did nothing to stop them,
according to a Christian identified only
as Rajat in a video on social media.
“We were dragged out barefoot with
threats by the attackers who told us
that they will break our hands and legs
and kill us,” Rajat said on the video.
Church pastor H.S. David told Morning
Star News that the assailants did not
ask them anything when they burst into
the Jan. 3 worship service, but only
pulled down the metal sliding gate so
that none of them could escape and
began beating them as they cursed
Christians and Christ.
“They literally dragged five of us
[including the Hindu owner of the hall]
from inside the hall to the road outside;
the beating only intensified there,”
Pastor David said. “They forced us to
be in the Murga position [translated
“Rooster,” a stress position for
punishment in parts of the Indian
subcontinent] and then kept on beating
us with sticks and their legs.”
Soon police officer J. Pratap Singh
arrived, according to Rajat.
“The policeman never asked us why we
were being beaten,” Rajat said in the
video. “Instead, Singh started to beat
us with a baton before he arrested us.
He even verbally abused the Christian
women standing there and threatened
to arrest them as well.”
Officers took the Christians to the
police station, where a mob of Hindu
extremists were waiting. Congregation
members said the police station head
officer threatened the Christians in the
presence of the radical Hindus, cursed
Christ and made derogatory caste
remarks against Christians.
“He then proceeded to beat us,” Pastor
David told Morning Star News. “He was
completely hand-in-glove with the
extremists who were pressing him to
book us. Though we were inside the
police station, we did not feel secure in
the presence of the police. We were
very scared.”
When police took the injured Christians
to a medical clinic, the doctor declined
to treat them, Pastor David said.
“The doctor never even touched us,” he
said. “He just asked us verbally where
we were hurting and wrote something
on a paper and handed it over to the
police. We did not even get to read
what he had written.”
Officers then took them back to the
police station, where they were forced
to sign two documents, he said.
“We could not get to read what was
written on them for the police were
forcing us,” Pastor David said. “We do
not know what we signed.”
After making the Christians wait a little
longer, police released them at about
8:30 p.m., after confiscating some of
their belongings: four Bibles and
Christian literature, as though they
were evidence to accuse them of
forcible conversion, along with a
keyboard, table, diary and other items,
he said.
TRAUMATIZED
Congregation members were as
emotionally traumatized as physically
injured, said the pastor, who sustained
several internal and external injuries.
“I have swelling in my legs because of
the beating. I was hit on my buttocks
and back with batons both inside the
church and outside,” Pastor David told
Morning Star News. “They kicked my
chest. The police beat me up very hard
on my thighs, and I was repeatedly
slapped. Because of the slapping, one
of my ears is discharging some fluid. I
am unable to sit properly.”
When the assailants had taken the four
Christians and the Hindu outside the
worship hall to continue the assault,
they told them the hitting would
continue unless they praised the Hindu
god Rama and cursed Christ, he said.
“We were already so much in pain, and
the assaulters would just not relent,”
Pastor David told Morning Star News
with visible anguish. “After the physical
torture did not come to an end, we
decided to do what they were forcing
us to do – we cursed Lord Jesus
Christ.”
The pastor said he and other men who
were the first to be assaulted did not
find out until later, to their shock, that
the women and children were also
beaten.
“We were dealing with our own injuries
while being beaten mercilessly – we
did not realize that women and children
were also being attacked in a most
ruthless manner as well,” Pastor David
said. “One of the attackers was
beating a 5-year-old child’s father, so
he ran and begged him not to hit his
father, but the attacker hit the child,
and he flung and fell at a distance.”
All the children were beaten, and
mothers attempting to protect them
were hit even more, church members
said.
“Whatever they found, they hit us with
it,” said a sobbing 18-year-old identified
only as Neha, who suffered a broken
bone in her hand. “They hit us with
chairs, a table, wooden sticks, legs and
fists. They showed no mercy. They hit
men, women and children alike.”
Her 6-year-old sister was also beaten,
she said.
“My mother and I, along with my five
younger sisters, were inside the church
when the attack took place,” she told
Morning Star News. “All my sisters
were beaten including my youngest,
who was hit by a chair and sustained
internal injuries. My mother was also
beaten when she tried to question the
attackers as to why they were
ruthlessly hitting the brothers.”
Neha said she did not know what
struck her.
“Someone hit me from the back. I don’t
know if he used a chair or a wooden
baton,” she said. “There was a lot of
chaos. We were all crying and trying to
safeguard little children.”
Neha, who no longer has a father, said
the pain in her hand has impeded her
ability to take care of her home and
younger sisters while her mother goes
to work every day.
“There is so much pain in my hand that
I wake up in the middle of the night
and cry because of the severe pain,”
she said.
A Christian male sustained a severe
head injury, Pastor David said.
“One of the brothers was hit by a
wooden table. He sustained a
gruesome head injury, and blood began
to ooze out,” he said.
Hearing the commotion, the Hindu
landlord of the hall that the Christians
rent, Suresh Gupta, came running and
tried to reason with the assailants, the
pastor said.
“Suresh told the Hindu extremists that
we were good people and that we have
never tried converting anyone, but they
became terribly angry at him and
started beating him as well,” Pastor
David said. “They accused him of
betraying their community.”
It was then that the Hindu mob
dragged Gupta and the four Christians
– Pastor David, Rajat, Jagan Kumar
and another identified only as Ajay –
out of the hall to continue assaulting
them outside.
CHRISTIANS CHARGED
Before police released the Christians, a
leader of the Hindu extremist Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP, or World Council
of Hindus), Rajesh Awasthi,
approached Pastor David and
threatened him.
“Rajesh Awasthi came to me and told
me that I would spend my entire life in
prison. Another young boy who was
accompanying him told me that I would
have to convert to Hinduism,” the
pastor said.
Shahjahanpur police charged the
Christian victims of the assault under
Section 3/5(1) of Uttar Pradesh’s
newly enacted “anti-conversion” law
with “unlawful conversion from one
religion to another by
misrepresentation, force, undue
influence, coercion, allurement or by
any fraudulent means or by marriage.”
Ramlakhan Verma is named as the
complainant. Pastor David said he does
not know the person who filed the
complaint and has never seen him. The
First Information Report (FIR) filed
against the Christians “is completely
frivolous,” he said.
“We are poor people and live in a poor
colony – how can we allure anyone
with money or material [to convert]?”
Pastor David said. “We are dependent
on God for our daily sustenance. But
they have cooked up charges against
us.”
Police did not provide a copy of the
FIR to the Christians, and when Pastor
David sought to file a complaint about
the assault against the Hindu
extremists, the officer refused to
accept it, said Prem Joel, a local
Christian leader from the nearby city of
Bareilly who along with other Christian
leaders reached Shahjahanpur the
evening of the attack.
“Pastor David wanted to file a
complaint with the police and even
gave a handwritten complaint, but the
police refused to accept it,” Joel said.
“The police officer is clearly siding with
the Hindu extremists, and the behavior
of the police is very disappointing.”
Joel and about 70 Christian leaders
met with the superintendent of the
police on Jan. 6 and submitted a
memorandum, but he only suggested
they talk with the very officer who beat
them, he said.
“The superintendent told us to meet the
SHO [Station Head Officer], but we
know he is already biased against the
Christians,” Joel said. “We were
shocked – how could the
superintendent say such a thing? How
can he ask us to meet someone who is
his subordinate to solve the matter,
when that subordinate is part of the
problem?”
The Christians also met with and gave
a memorandum to the district
magistrate, who assured them he
would take action within three days,
but nothing happened, Christian leaders
said.
A local source speaking on condition
of anonymity told Morning Star News
that a minister from the Bhartiya
Janata Party (BJP) is putting a lot of
pressure on authorities in this case.
“An officer from the police department
told me that shortly before the new
year, a meeting was called by the state
government, and they were told to not
let any conversions happen at any
cost,” the source said. “They were also
told to bring the converted back into
the Hindu fold.”
Police comment on the allegations
against them could not be obtained due
to security concerns.
ONGOING TERROR
Pastor David has received reports from
the area Christians that Hindu
extremists were searching the area for
Neha, he said.
“On Jan. 5, the attackers came to
Neha’s colony and were searching for
her,” he said. “We do not know for
what. They also came to my colony but
did not find me.”
The next day police officers came to
his area and were heard saying that
the Hindu extremists should “cut the
pastor in pieces” and they “would take
care of the rest,” sources said.
The Sunday before the Jan. 3. assault,
a man had shown up and recorded a
video of worship service, Pastor David
said.
“When we confronted him and asked
him what he was doing, he shouted at
us and threatened us,” he said.
The hostile tone of the National
Democratic Alliance government, led by
the Hindu nationalist BJP, against non-
Hindus, has emboldened Hindu
extremists in several parts of the
country to attack Christians since
Prime Minister Narendra Modi took
power in May 2014, religious rights
advocates say.
India ranked 10 on Christian support
organization Open Doors’ 2021 World
Watch List of the countries where it is
most difficult to be a Christian, as it
was in 2020. The country was 31st in
2013, but its position worsened after
Modi came to power.
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