NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Hindu extremists in central India on June 8 ransacked a church’s worship building, burned Bibles and assaulted every member, causing one to lose consciousness, sources said.
In Chhattisgarh state’s Dhamtari District, the Hindu nationalists attacked during the independent Penial Prayer Fellowship’s worship service in Borsi village, said Pastor Wakish Sahu, who leads the church along with his 57-year-old father, Mannohan Sahu.
“They forcibly entered the church, disrupted the worship service and were carrying wooden rods and shouting slogans like ‘Jai Shri Ram’ [Hail lord Rama],” Pastor Wakish Sahu told Morning Star News.
Threatening the Christians, the attackers told them to stop gathering for worship, he said. They broke all chairs, fans and musical instruments, then collected all Christian literature along with the Bibles and burned them.
Taking hold of Pastor Mannohan Sahu, they beat him with wooden rods, slapped his face repeatedly, struck his head with wooden sticks and kicked him, Pastor Wakish Sahu said.
“My father was being beaten up, and during this time blows landed near his ear, and he lost his consciousness,” he said. “The assaulters, probably scared that he was dead or going to die from the beating, called for a glass of water and forced it in his mouth.”
Pastor Mannohan Sahu sustained injuries over all his body, especially on the head, ear, chest, hands and back.
The assailants beat all 15 members present that day, including Pastor Wakish Sahu’s mother when she tried to intervene and save her husband; her hands and head were injured in the process.
“Two women and five men sustained severe injuries and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment,” said Pastor Wakish Sahu.
Only five to seven of the assailants were from the village, the others being outsiders the pastor said he “had never seen before.”
Pastor Wakish Sahu registered a detailed complaint at the Maganlodh police station, but officers did not register a formal complaint as they indicated they would investigate first. At this writing, however, no formal complaint has been registered.
“Since the attack, the believers have stopped coming for worship as they are too scared, and understandably so; but our family members, around 10 of us, still worship at the same time,” Pastor Wakish Sahu said. “We have decided that we will not give in to fear.”
Under the Hindu Radar
This was not the first time the church has been attacked.
A mob of Hindu extremists in June 2024 attacked his church in a similar way, threatening all those present and telling them to stop attending worship services, the pastor said.
“Since then, our congregation of close to 50 people had reduced to 15, and since the latest attack, nobody [outside his family] is coming to church for fear of being assaulted,” Pastor Wakish Sahu said.
After the attack last year, Dhamtari Christian leaders had submitted a memorandum to authorities, including the District Collector of Dhamtari.
“Police have been patrolling every Sunday since last year,” the pastor said. “They usually come inside to check if any persons from nearby villages are in attendance, because they maintain that only people from our village should be present in our services. They have warned time and again that no one from other villages should be found in our midst.”
During police visits, after confirming attendance they usually take photos before leaving, he added.
Congregation members stopped coming also from fear of being targeted by anti-Christian groups.
“Many of them have told us that they will attend worship in other churches in nearby areas or in the city but are afraid of attending worship services at our church because of fear of violence and the police,” the pastor said. “However, they do not understand that even city churches have not been spared.”
On the morning of June 8, the patrolling police who visited the church again asked if anyone from outside the village was attending and left. When the ensuing assault was underway, officers arrived and told the assailants to leave.
“It was very surprising that the police just told them, ‘It is enough,’ and they all just walked away,” Pastor Wakish Sahu said. “It appears that it was all in the knowledge of the police even before they attacked us.”
When he and other Christian leaders went to submit a formal complaint at the police station, the Hindu extremists were waiting outside to attack them again. The pastor requested police protection, and officers agreed to drop them halfway to their home.
“When the police were driving us back, the Hindu mob was following the police vehicle,” he said. “They came after us for a mile and then took a detour.”
He later learned the Hindu mob following them had gone to another Christian house in the area and vandalized and burned it, he said.
Another congregation in Dhamtari, Elohim Church, endured an intrusion by members of the Hindu nationalist Bajrang Dal on Sunday (June 29), said Pastor Alok Majumdar.
“The Hindu extremists entered the church while the service was going on and disrupted it by loudly singing Hindu religious hymns,” Pastor Majumdar told Morning Star News. “Subsequently, the police arrived and dispersed the Bajrang Dal members.”
Officers took an informal complaint, but it has not yet been formalized. No physical violence or vandalism was reported.
The same day, Hindu extremists disrupted the worship service of another church in the district, located in Gopal Puri about 10 miles from Pastor Majumdar’s church. Its pastor, Thanu Ram, was unavailable to confirm the incident but it was cited by both Pastor Majumdar and Pastor Wakish Sahu.
Before attacking Pastor Majumdar’s church, the same day Hindu extremists went to Pastor Rekha Mahilanh’s church on the way to Majumdar’s church. Extremists found a 21-year-old man outside the building who was attending church for the first time and assaulted him. They then searched for the church pastor. Pastor Mahilanh stepped forward and revealed that she was the pastor, and she and all other women of the church confronted the extremists.
“The Hindu extremists discreetly used some kind of a spray on some of the women,” Pastor Mahilanh told Morning Star News.
In the end, due to the women’s determination, the extremists left and proceeded to Pastor Alok Majumdar’s church.
Pastor Mahilanh did not report the matter to the police.
Pastor Raju Verghese, also in Dhamtari District, Pastor Majumdar and the Rev. Diamond Phillius, president of the Dhamtari Christian Forum, submitted a memorandum to the collector’s office on Tuesday (July 1) highlighting the rise in attacks against area churches and appealing for action.
Pastor Verghese told Morning Star News that the district collector, Avinash Mishra, was busy in a meeting, so he received the memorandum from them and said that he would take it up with them later.
Christian support organization Open Doors ranks India 11th on its 2025 World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most severe persecution. India stood at 31st place in 2013 but has steadily fallen in the rankings since Narendra Modi came to power as prime minister.
Religious rights advocates point to the hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which they say has emboldened Hindu extremists in India since Modi took power in May 2014.
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