On June 1, members of the Hindu extremist Bajrang Dal led an attack on 50 Christians, including women and children, during the middle of a worship service at a pastor’s home in Thuvadara village in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabua District.
(LifeSiteNews) — A village church in central India’s Hindu-majority Madhya Pradesh state has suspended worship services following an attack on the congregation by Hindu extremists, according to sources cited by Morning Star News on July 15.
On June 1, members of the Hindu extremist Bajrang Dal led a group of around 20 assailants to the house of Indian pastor Madia Damor in Thuvadara village in Madhya Pradesh’s Jabua District. These attackers disrupted the ongoing worship service, assaulting 50 people who were assembled for prayer, including women and children, Morning Star News reported.
“There was all chaos,” Damor stated. “The children and women were crying, shouting, asking them to stop, but they forcefully dragged them out of my house,” the pastor added in comments to Morning Star News.
“When I tried to stop the mob from attacking the women and children, they pushed me off and threatened me that they would kill me if I conducted church prayers in the village again.”
Damor recounted that assailants grabbed a 54-year-old Christian identified as Noorji, and “started pelting stones” at him.
“He was isolated from the congregation, and they chased him away by a few meters and started pelting stones at him,” the pastor recalled.
Consequently, Noorji had to undergo medical treatment at a hospital. According to a report by LICAS News, Noorji’s medical expenses have beleaguered his family.
“The treatment has been very expensive for Noorji’s family. He is only a laborer and earns daily wages for his livelihood,” Damor lamented.
“His children and their spouses also have been baptized and stood boldly for Christian faith in this Thuvadara village,” the pastor said, as he elaborated on why assailants attacked Noorji.
Despite reporting the attack to local authorities, Damor said that police have been dismissive regarding the attack.
“Instead of listening to us and recording our statements, the police started questioning us,” Damor told Morning Star News.
“The police asked me, ‘Why do you conduct worship services in the village when they are saying not to conduct Christian worship?’ The police did not understand our grievances. Even after seeing Noorji bleeding continuously, the police did not take any steps to send him for medical examination and treatment.”
“Each time we go to the police station to report the attack, the police don’t believe us,” the pastor asserted.
For fear of future attacks, church members in need of prayer now have to clandestinely drop by Damor’s house before 7 a.m.
“Parents bring their sick children early in the morning seeking prayers,” the pastor said. “If they have come from a bit far away, we advise them to join in prayers over the phone.”
Nonetheless, Sunday worship has totally ceased, the pastor conceded.
“The congregation fears there could be another attack if they gathered again,” he said.
The attack on Damor’s house is not the first time Christian churches or prayer groups have faced violence from Hindu extremists.
In 2021, Hindu extremists assaulted the community of Pastor Firoz Bagh as they were in the midst of prayer, AsiaNews reported.
The crowd of Hindu radicals then slammed the Christians for alleged forced conversions and threatened to assault Bagh.
Based on the 2024 World Watch List by Christian advocacy group Open Doors, India ranks 11th among countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. As per an Open Doors local partner, Priya Sharma, whose real name has been withheld for privacy reasons, Indian Christians “experience physical violence, sexual assault, abduction, attacks on church gatherings, vandalism, forced church closures and even death.”
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