A Protestant pastor in a northern Indian state has been attacked for allegedly conducting religious conversions.
Pastor Shyju Joseph was conducting Sunday worship on Aug. 6 at his place in Bihar state’s Nawada district. Members of the Bajrang Dal (brigade of Lord Hanuman), a Hindu nationalist organisation, disrupted the service after accusing him of converting people to Christianity.
“They asked him to accompany them and made him sit on a motorcycle. Later, he was beaten up badly,” Christian activist Minakshi Singh told UCA News on Aug. 7.
Singh, general secretary of Unity in Compassion, a charity based in neighboring Uttar Pradesh state, said, “As of now, no complaint has been filed.”
We have contacted our people in Bihar to help the victim register a police complaint, Singh added.
Police took him to Sharif Sadar Hospital in Nawada district where he was undergoing treatment for his injuries, she added.
“Pastor Joseph’s condition is serious but he is stable now,” the Christian lay leader said.
A member of Persecution Relief, an inter-denominational organization in India, criticized the state government for not filing a case against the pastor’s attackers.
“Are the attackers above the law of the land?” the member, who did not want to be named, said.
He said he has urged the state government to take tough action against the attackers.