Christianity crackdown: Mob harasses crowd of CHILDREN on way to Christmas Day service
CHRISTIAN children on their way to a Christmas day mass were harassed by an angry mob in the latest crackdown on Christianity to hit India.
Busses carrying 200 school children were hijacked by radicals claiming the youngsters were being forcefully converted to the Christian faith and abused by pastors, religious watchdog International Christian Concern (ICC) said. The mob, which numbered roughly 30 Hindu extremists, also pressured local police into arresting the Hindu teacher, Sandeep Kashyap, who had escorted the children to the mass in Uttarakhand, northern India and north-east of New Delhi. Mr Kashyap, who had been bringing the children to church at Christmas for the past four years, told Morning Star News: “Never has such a problem risen in the past years. I did not know that taking the children to witness a Christmas program was such a big crime.” Police eventually learned the claims made against Mr Kashyap were false and released him.
Indian Christian 'scared' about country's attitude to Christianity
Rajeev Uniyal, the officer in charge, said: “The Bajrang Dal volunteers suspected that these children were taken to Dehradun to forcefully convert them and make them Christians, but our prima facie inquiry has revealed that nothing of such sort was going to take place.”
Claims of conversion are taken extremely seriously in India and are often used by Hindus to harass the Christian community according to ICC.
Last May, Uttrakhand became the seventh state in India to adopt the Freedom of Religion Act, which is commonly referred to as an Anti-Conversion Law, making it much easier for radicals to falsely charge Christians over claims of forced conversions.
The news comes after another group of 300 Hindus terrorised a group of Christian children attending Sunday school in India in November.
The ICC said the children were threatened by the radical Hindu Munnani group who tore their books to pieces in front of them. Pastor Selva Raj was leading a worship in Amathur village when the attack took place.
The group also destroyed a shed in front of a building being used for worship, and then demanded police banish the pastor leading the ministry.
Christians suffering attacks in their place of worship by radicals continue to rise in number and intensity.
Christian pastors and evangelists are repeatedly accused of forced conversions against majority religions in India.