Before Pastor Jai Singh appeared before a judge in northern India and was jailed on false charges of luring people to convert, Hindu extremists had dragged him from house worship to a school where groups of six beat him in turns, he said.
The radical Hindus had assaulted him and other house church worshippers after an attempt to attack their mother church in nearby Siwanka over Christmas was thwarted, sources said. On the first Sunday of 2020, the assailants showed up at the Bichpari village house church and attacked Pastor Singh, homeowner Naresh Singh and his relatives. The pastor, who struggles to provide for his family as a day laborer, is still unable to walk due to the severity of the beatings, they said. Naresh Singh said his store was forced to close following the attacks.
“After the Jan. 5 attack on our home church, the owner of the shop called and told me to vacate the premises immediately,” Naresh Singh said.
India is ranked 10th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country was 31st in 2013, but its position has grown worse each year after Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014. (MS)
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