Extremist Hindus Rout Christians from Rural Indian Village

Hindus twice assaulted a Christian community in a rural India village early this month, beating believers, forcing them into Hindu worship rituals and damaging their homes, Open Doors News reports. The Sunday worship meeting was underway Sept. 2 in the home of a new Christian, Daminbai Sahu, in Bhanpuri, a village in the Balod district of India's state of Chhattisgarh. Witnesses said a group of villagers stormed into the house and beat several of the people attending the meeting, including a visiting pastor identified only as Dada. The attackers accused Dada of forcefully converting Hindus to Christianity and dragged him out of the house. As hundreds gathered around the commotion, the extremists ordered Dada out of the village and threatened to kill him if he returned, then forced believers to renounce their faith in Christ late in the night. The following night at 11 p.m., about 600 Hindu extremists stormed the houses of five Christian families, calling them "pagans" and accusing them of trying to forcefully convert Hindus to Christianity. They broke doors, damaged the houses and household items, witnesses said. Believers fled to the village of Balod, where they found refuge with other Christians. They filed a complaint with police, but police refused to register a formal report of the incident.