Pro-Hindu tribal people have removed a cross from a Protestant Church and converted the building into their community hall in India’s Jharkhand State in a move that Christian leaders believe is linked to upcoming elections.

Some 50 tribal people took down the cross from the Vishwa Vani (voice of the world) church in Khadnga village, 25 kilometres from state capital Ranchi, on Oct. 20. They also repainted the name as Sarna Bhavan — the house of those following the traditional tribal Sarna religion. They also held a purification ceremony and prayers at the church.

“We lodged a complaint with the police on Oct. 24 after our efforts to amicably settle the issue failed,” said Pastor Emmanuel Kujur, coordinator of the Protestant group in the state.

He said tribal people in the village captured the church on grounds that it was built on tribal land. They claimed to have a government order to reclaim the land and the building but failed to produce the document, he said.

Pastor Kujur admitted there was a dispute over the land. The church was built on land donated by a tribal Christian. He and his brothers had a dispute over their property and a local magistrate ruled the land belonged to the government.

“But that does not give anyone the right to capture the church. The dispute continues between the brothers. Until it is settled, how can someone take it over?” he asked.

Bangladeshis are mourning a prominent American Catholic missionary who dedicated much of his life to the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts in the South Asian nation.

Holy Cross Brother Ronald Drahozal passed away at a retirement and treatment facility run by his order in the U.S. State of Indiana on Oct. 16. He was 81.

Brother Drahozal had been suffering from a range of ailments for years and had been in the U.S. since March for medical treatment.

It was Brother Drahozal’s work helping thousands of Bangladeshi youth fight drug addiction that brought him national and international recognition.

Bishop Gervas Rozario of Rajshahi Diocese, the vice-president of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Bangladesh, said Brother Drahozal’s death is a great loss.

Pakistani authorities have suspended the head teacher of a government school for assaulting a Christian student and abusing his mother.

Nusrat Shaheen was suspended on Oct. 22 after a complaint of discrimination against 12-year- old Sharjeel Masih by his parents.

Sharjeel, a fourth grader, was beaten and suspended for a week from the Government Boys Primary School of District Attock, Punjab province. The district education officer has launched an inquiry into the incident.

“I was just trying to turn off a running tap when the teacher grabbed me, called me churha (low caste) and asked why I had touched the tap and made it filthy. ‘This tap is not from the country of your mother,’ she said before abusing me. I had to sit outside the school for five hours,” said Sharjeel, whose father works in a military hospital as a sanitary worker.

His mother Farzana Ejaz recounted the humiliation of the incident to ucanews.com.

“I accompanied him to school the next day to apologize for any mistake committed by my son. She [Nusrat Shaheen] asked me to grab her feet for the mistake of my son and threatened that her brother, a police officer, would sell my younger daughter to a brothel,” said the mother of three.