Christian Pastor beaten up by Siva Sena mob

Christian Pastor beaten up by Siva Sena mob
at Siddipet, Andhra Pradesh
A report by aicc fact-finding team
Pastor Karunakar, age 25, has been pastoring the church in Siddapet for the last two years after completing his seminary degree at Bharat Bible College, Hyderabad. On 8th March 2004, around 30 young people ages 20 to 25 and belonging to Mirdoddi village and other neighboring villages surrounded the church premises and asked Pastor Karunakar to come with them to discuss certain issues. However, Pastor refused to go with them and asked them to discuss the matter on the church premises instead. The group told the pastor that he should immediately leave the village and should not run the church in the village any more. The mob threatened him with dire consequences if he failed to meet their demands. They then told the pastor that the church building should be removed, as there was no government permission to have a church in the village. When the pastor asked the reasons for their actions and demands, the unruly mob beat him badly. Several women belonging to the church went to rescue him, but were also attacked.

Upon aicc inquiry, the fact-finding team discovered that the night before the incident, ten young people belonging to the same group, approached the house of Shri Buchaiah and Smt. Sathyamma around mid-night. The pastor conducts weekly prayer meetings in their home. They threatened to stab and kill the pastor if the prayer meetings in their house continued. Mr. Janardhan, the neighbor of Shri Buchaiah was an active supporter of this opposing group.

The pastor and the church members lodged a complaint with the Police on 9th March 2004. A case was registered vide F.I.R 20/04 u/s.143, 295A, 448, 323, 504,506 of IPC. No arrests have yet been made. Further, aicc officials have learned that the Police Department is under immense pressure from the local RSS and Siva Sena leaders to scrap the charge and cover up the case.



Misinformation

Shri Laxma Reddy, a local reporter of the Telugu daily, “Vaartha,”, (who is also a member of the RSS / Siva Sena), has published a series of misleading and inflammatory articles on the church, as well as on the Sub-inspector of Police, Shri. Somanandam. Reddy states that the Sub-inspector is a Christian and this is the reason the case has been booked against the Siva Sena cadres. The aicc fact-finding team visited the Police Station and asked about the progress of the case filed by the pastor. The team discovered that the Sub-inspector is neither a Christian nor a sympathizer.



However, this is not the first incident that has taken place in Siddipet. The aicc has learned that several such heinous activities have been perpetrated against the small Christian community by the RSS and the Siva Sena cadres, and that, too, in the neighboring district of Hyderabad, the Hi-Tech State Capital of Andhra Pradesh.



Shri. Kanuganti Sreenu, a member of the Siva Sena / RSS locked the church on the evening of 24th December 2003, to prevent the believers from having a worship service on Christmas Day. However, the same person removed the lock on 25th morning.


On 20th January 2004, the youth group, including an elderly member of the Sivajinagar Church , was conducting their regular Bible Study at the Social Welfare Boys Hostel, Siddipet. Some miscreants, around ten members of the RSS / Siva Sena, beat them up, hurled abusive words and dragged them to an open area in front of the Sub-Judge’s house. They threatened to burn the youth group alive. They then took their Bibles, poured petrol on them and burned the books. Vijay Kumar, Prashant, Sudarshanam and Vinay Kumar of Sivajinagar Church who had gone through this terrible experience, count all this as a privilege to suffer for Christ’s sake and left the place peacefully. No complaint was made with the Police.

In another incident at Nangunoor, around 15 workers belonging to a local church were beaten up, while six Bibles and huge quantities of Gospel tracts were burned. This incident was reported in the local daily news.



A year ago, an evangelist, Prashant, was beaten up in Irkodu Village, Siddipet, while returning home after conducting Bible Study.



These are only a few incidents which have been reported to the aicc fact-finding team. The Christian community in the Siddipet area is under tremendous pressure and has faced various forms of atrocities after the emergence of Siva Sena and RSS outfits in Siddipet under the leadership of Mr. Ramaram Chandrasekhar Reddy.


Anyone who visits Siddipet notices the writings on the walls: “RCR Zindabad”, “Take trishul and dagger”, “Chase the anti-nationals”, etc. In this way, the fundamentalist groups are branding the Christians (who provide yeoman service to the nation for the betterment of all sections of society) as anti-nationals and have been misinforming and instigating the innocent youth to attack churches and Christian leaders.


Sivajinagar Church, was conducting their regular Bible Study at the Social Welfare Boys Hostel, Siddipet. Some miscreants, around ten members of the RSS / Siva Sena, beat them up, hurled abusive words and dragged them to an open area in front of the Sub-Judge’s house. They threatened to burn the youth group alive. They then took their Bibles, poured petrol on them and burned the books. Vijay Kumar, Prashant, Sudarshanam and Vinay Kumar of Sivajinagar Church who had gone through this terrible experience, count all this as a privilege to suffer for Christ’s sake and left the place peacefully. No complaint was made with the Police.

In another incident at Nangunoor, around 15 workers belonging to a local church were beaten up, while six Bibles and huge quantities of Gospel tracts were burned. This incident was reported in the local daily news.

A year ago, an evangelist, Prashant, was beaten up in Irkodu Village, Siddipet, while returning home after conducting Bible Study.

These are only a few incidents which have been reported to the aicc fact-finding team. The Christian community in the Siddipet area is under tremendous pressure and has faced various forms of atrocities after the emergence of Siva Sena and RSS outfits in Siddipet under the leadership of Mr. Ramaram Chandrasekhar Reddy.

Anyone who visits Siddipet notices the writings on the walls: “RCR Zindabad”, “Take trishul and dagger”, “Chase the anti-nationals”, etc. In this way, the fundamentalist groups are branding the Christians (who provide yeoman service to the nation for the betterment of all sections of society) as anti-nationals and have been misinforming and instigating the innocent youth to attack churches and Christian leaders.

Fact file:

Place of Incident: Mirdoddi village

Siddipet Mandal, Medak District

Date: 8th March 2004

Date visited for Fact Finding: 20th March 2004

Total village Population: 5500