Odisha: Hindutva mob allegedly attacks Christians for refusing to convert, 8 injured
A group of Christians was allegedly attacked by a Hindutva mob in Odisha’s Malkangiri district on Saturday for refusing to convert to Hinduism, The Telegraph reported. Eight Christians were injured in the incident.
The group was attacked by “hundreds of people” with weapons such as axes while returning from a church in Kotamateru village, the newspaper quoted Pallab Lima, state general secretary of the Rashtriya Christian Morcha, as saying.
Lima said that one person contacted a local pastor, who then informed the Malkangiri Police Station.
The police intervened and took the injured to hospital, The Telegraph reported. A case was registered at the police station.
After an initial round of investigation, police said that the incident stemmed from a dispute between two brothers, one a Christian and the other a Hindu.
“The Hindu brother was pressuring his Christian sibling to return to the Hindu fold,” the newspaper quoted Inspector Rigan Kinda of Malkangiri Police Station as saying.
On the day of the incident, Kinda said, the group of Christians was surrounded by “many Hindus” who “questioned their allegiance to Christianity”.
“An argument broke out and was followed by clashes, in which some people suffered injuries,” he added.
The local Christian community leaders, including Lima, have alleged that the outfit Bajrang Dal was responsible for the attack.
The Bajrang Dal is part of a group...
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