Hindus Instigate Tribal People Against Christians

INDIAN HINDUS INSTIGATE TRIBAL PEOPLE AGAINST CHRISTIANS

Christian families driven from their village in India’s Jharkhand state have returned home with police help, but tribal people instigated by Hindu extremists are still bent on expelling them, sources said.

Hindu extremists last month mobilized tribal groups to banish the Christian families from Kullu village in Chanho Block, Ranchi District, about 30 miles from the state capital, Ranchi, an area pastor said. “The Christians in the village have been discriminated and threatened for a long time, but the banishment started in the first week of June, when five Christian families were threatened and banished from the village,” said pastor Moosa Minj, who also was forced to flee. “The tribal families that have been banished have been Christians for more than 20 years.”

Minj fled the village on June 10 after receiving death threats, he said. Villagers threw his belongings out of his house. Also fleeing were the families of Gossner Ekka, Vardhan Kujur, Premchand Kujur, Masihcharan Kujur and Premchand Ekka, he said. “They threatened me with dire consequences and misbehaved with me as they did with the others,” Pastor Minj said.

The expelled Christian families on June 13 approached the local police station at Narkopi, only to be initially turned away, the pastor said.

The Rev. Vijayesh Lal of the Evangelical Fellowship of India told Morning Star News that when Christian groups in Delhi made inquiries to the police station in Narkopi, officers there said that no Christians had come to the station until June 15.

“The local police want to portray this as a family feud, which it is not,” Lal said. “Rev. Moosa Minj gave a report and asked for protection for the Christians in the village. His appeal for protection was accepted, but his First Information Report was not filed.”

Members of Hindu extremist groups have provoked the tribal Adivasis, who practice the indigenous Sarna religion, against the Christians, Pastor Minj said.

“Marwari Uraon, the village head of Kullu, is guided by Gangotri Kujur, who is a member of the Legislative Assembly from the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP],” he said. “The Hindu groups are behind the trouble and discrimination that we are facing.”

http://christiannews.net/2015/07/12/indian-hindus-instigate-tribal-people-against-christians/