Muslim extremists suspected in death of Christian worker in India

Family members of a Christian worker who was found dead in a Muslim area in Jharkhand state a day after the Islamic Eid festival said they suspect he may have been murdered by local residents.

The body of Shravan Kumar, who had worked with the Gospel Echoing Missionary Society, was found lying in a well near the Idgah Mosque in Garhwa town in the wee hours of Sept. 13, a close relative of the deceased told Compass by phone.

Kumar, 31, lived in Pratapgarh district in neighboring Uttar Pradesh state. He left for Garhwa, 65 kilometers (40 miles) from his house, saying he wanted to see a colleague there on Sept 10.

“But neither did he visit the colleague, nor did he get back home,” said the relative.

On Sept. 15, a family member went to Garhwa looking for him. He found his picture in an advertisement police had placed in a local newspaper in an effort to identify the body.

“When Kumar’s body was handed over to the family, it was beyond recognition; it had swollen,” said the relative.

Muslim Mob Attacks Christians in Gujrat, Pakistan

A mob of Muslim extremists on Thursday (Sept. 23) shot at and beat dozens of Christians, including one cleared of “blasphemy” charges, in Punjab Province’s Gujrat district, Christian leaders said.

The attack on Tariq Gill, exonerated of charges of blaspheming the Quran on Sept. 3, 2009, and on his father Murad Gill, his mother and the other Christian residents was the latest of more than 10 such assaults on the Christian colony of Mohalla Kalupura, Gujrat city, since Sept. 8, the Rev. Suleman Nasri Khan and Bishop Shamas Pervaiz told Compass.

About 40 Islamists – some shooting Kalashnikovs and pistols at homes and individuals on the street, others brandishing axes and clubs – beat some of the Christians so badly that they left them for dead, Pastor Khan said. So far, 10 families have been targeted for the attacks.

India's president under pressure to protect Christians

India’s president is being pressed to protect Christians in the country’s northern Kashmir region after a mob burned down the oldest school there and also attacked other Christian institutions nearby.

“I am pained to state that though the local authorities were informed about a possible attack … no protection was provided,” stated the Rt Rev Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy in a message to President Pratibha Patil.

“You are aware that the Christians in the State of Jammu and Kashmir are a tiny minority who always live and serve under stressful and sometimes threatening situations,” the Church of North India bishop added Wednesday. “The present situation has made the Christians in Jammu and Kashmir feel very insecure.”

Muslims shout slogans as they burn a placard bearing the name of US President Barack Obama in Jammu, India, on Tuesday in protest of the reported desecration of Korans in the US.

India’s president is being pressed to protect Christians in the country’s northern Kashmir region

india’s president is being pressed to protect Christians in the country’s northern Kashmir region after a mob burned down the oldest school there and also attacked other Christian institutions nearby.

“I am pained to state that though the local authorities were informed about a possible attack … no protection was provided,” stated the Rt Rev Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy in a message to President Pratibha Patil.

“You are aware that the Christians in the State of Jammu and Kashmir are a tiny minority who always live and serve under stressful and sometimes threatening situations,” the Church of North India bishop added Wednesday. “The present situation has made the Christians in Jammu and Kashmir feel very insecure.”

On Monday, hundreds of Muslims in the divided region of Kashmir took to the streets in violent protest over the reported desecration of Korans in the United States.

Around two dozen people reportedly died in the clash that ensued between police and protesters, and the Tangmarg Tyndale Biscoe branch school was burned to ashes.

The school, which is managed by Samantaroy’s diocese, the Diocese of Amristar, had been providing education to 550 children from 150 villages around the town of Tangmarg. It had been founded in 1996 by the Tyndale-Biscoe & Mallinson School Educational Society to cater for those in the economically deprived sectors of the community.

After Monday night, however, the three-storey wooden building was completely destroyed by the fire that was set by an angry mob, which was responding to reports of a man in the United States who desecrated the Koran over the weekend.

In a statement on Thursday, the activist who helped to organise the action against the Koran said his group was “truly sad” to hear of the deaths that followed their demonstration in front of the White House on Saturday, but said that to blame them for the violence was "ludicrous”.

“Such logic is like saying that a woman who is abused by her boyfriend or husband is guilty of bringing violence on herself because she said or did something that irritated him,” stated Randall Terry, who founded the anti-abortion organisation Operation Rescue.

In addition to the Tungmarg Tyndale Biscoe branch school in Kashmir, other Christian institutions also came under attack, including the Roman Catholic Good Shepherd High School at Pulwama that was also set on fire and the Church of North India hospital at Anantnag that was stormed by protestors, two of whom were shot and killed by security forces.

“Today the school, the pride of the children who studied here and the staff who have put everything into the school, is a heap of ashes. I cannot express my own shock and sense of loss,” reported Rahinder Kaul, headmaster of Tungmarg Tyndale Biscoe, according to the Anglican Communion News Service.

“[M]any, many students broke down completely while talking to me,” he added. “Theirs is by far the biggest loss.”

Aside from the loss of property, Samantaroy said the burning of the school building caused “irreparable damage to the sentiments of the Christian Community.”

According to estimates, Christians number around 25,000 in Kashmir, 15,000 of which are Catholic.

Victim of India Violence Rescued from Trafficking Ring

Nearly two years after large-scale anti-Christian violence broke out in India’s Kandhamal district, Orissa state, a team working against human trafficking on Aug. 9 rescued a 16-year-old Christian girl – one of at least 60 people sold into slavery after being displaced by the 2008 attacks.

The recovery in Delhi of the girl represented the cracking of a network that has trafficked Christian girls and women from Orissa to the national capital, sources said.

“Human trafficking agents operating in the tribal belt of Orissa have targeted the Christian girls who are displaced by the Kandhamal communal violence – we have been receiving complaints of missing girls from Kandhamal after the violence broke out in 2008,” said attorney Lansinglu Rongmei, one of the rescue team members. “Roughly 60 girls are estimated missing and have been trafficked to different states.”

Gospel for Asia Mourns Murder of Indian Missionary-EU Team Visits Site of Anti-Christian Violence in India

Gospel For Asia has expressed its sorrow over the murder of one of its missionaries in India last month.

Ajit Bansi was constructing a new church in Assam when he was killed by an extremist anti-Christian group on May 20. He had gone to a nearby town to purchase materials for the final phase of construction but never returned.

GFA said he was ambushed together with three other people and that all four were shot dead by the extremist group.