Two pastors assaulted, and their Bible set ablaze in Haryana

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A dozen Hindu nationalists harassed and beat up two pastors and set fire to a Bible one was carrying after accusing them of converting people to Christianity by offering money, according to a report.

The pastors, identified as Sanjay Kumar and Inderjit, were in Haryana returning home after visiting a Christian family for prayers on the roof of their home in the Anand Nagar area of Ambala Cantonment when the mob, which included women, attacked them, Morning Star News reported about the Jan. 28 attack.

The pastors were accused of receiving foreign funds and offering money to people in an attempt to get them to convert.

Visibly hostile, some people in the mob filmed the pastors while questioning them in coarse language without letting them answer, Pastor Kumar was quoted as saying.

Sanjay Rana, a neighbor and member of the Hindu extremist Bajrang Dal, was leading the mob, he said.

Rana seized Pastor Inderjit’s driver’s license and Pastor Kumar’s ID card, and then the mob began punching and slapping them. They also snatched the Bible from Kumar’s hand.

“Their beating did not pain me as much as the snatching of my Bible did,” Pastor Kumar said. “I began to weep. I said, ‘This is my Bible ... this is my Jesus. Please give my Bible back to me. A woman and a man from the crowd using a matchbox burned my Bible, and she sarcastically exclaimed, ‘See, I have set your Jesus ablaze.’”

The mob then tried to force the pastors to recite a devotional hymn in praise of the Hindu god Hanuman and attempted to abduct the pastors and take them to a Hindu temple to force them to bow before idols, Pastor Kumar said. “They began to force us to enter their car. When we resisted firmly, they said, ‘Let’s call the police.”

Pastor Inderjit said he was glad at the possibility of police arriving and ending the 90 minutes of physical and mental abuse. As Pastor Kumar was dizzy due to the beating, one of the assailants said they should let them go, and the two pastors fled.

Courtesy of The Christian Post.