By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi, Sept 5, 2020: A church building was demolished at the dead of night by religious fanatics on September 2 in the southern Indian state of Telangana.
The attack is the aftermath of a police complaint made against the fanatics who have been harassing the Church since 2019, Persecution Relief reported September 5.
“At around 2 am, my wife woke up with a start after hearing loud sounds outside. When we rushed out to check, we saw a few men demolishing our church building. They fled after seeing us,” Pastor Murli told Persecution Relief.
Shibu Thomas of the Persecution Relief told Matters India that his organization cannot disclosed the location of the incident for the safety of the victims.
Pastor Murli and his family have served the church in a slum for the past 11 years. “There are around 180 Christians who are a part of our Church. All of them are residents of the slum” the pastor added.
“In 2019, the same men had interrupted our Sunday worship service, forced us out and locked up the church. We immediately filed a police complaint against them and the inquiry is ongoing” Pastor Murli explained.
Describing the intensifying persecution that they have been facing, the pastor said the Church has peacefully functioned there for over a decade, “until these particular men began to create trouble and cause great inconvenience.”
The pastor has again filed a First Information Report on the attack. “The church building was a safe haven for underprivileged slum dwellers to pray and worship Jesus Christ together. Over a span of 10 years, we painstakingly contributed our all to build and maintain it. Now, it has been deviously taken away from us” Pastor Murli bemoaned.
The pastor said his people now grieve for the loss.
Numerous church buildings and structures have been vandalized in India. “Sadly, the destruction of a Christian place of worship is not as significant as the destruction of other religious places in the country,” Thomas regrets.
In the first half of this year, Persecution Relief recorded 293 cases of Christian Persecution. In 2019, it recorded 527 cases compared to 447 cases in 2018, 440 in 2017 and 330 in 2016. From January 2016 to June 2020, Persecution Relief has recorded 2067 cases of Hate crimes against Christians in India.