WB: Radical Islamists physically abuse Christians *UP: Police stop a Christian convention *AP: Land encroachment leads to the demolition of a church *Karnataka: 10 sentenced for forcible conversion

West Bengal, April 04, 2012: On 30th March, 2012, radical Islamist forcibly entered a Christian home in Nutangram, West Bengal where a group of Christians were gathered and physically assaulted them and disgraced them in public.
 
Mr. Gaffar Shaike and his wife had invited their Christian friends over to their place for lunch and prayer on the 30th March, 2012, in Nuntangram village, Murshidabad district, in West Bengal. Shortly after lunch while they were they were having a time of fellowship and prayer a group of radical Islamists stormed in the house of Mr. Shaike and inflicted grave injuries on 3 of those gathered. The victims are Mr. Aimazan Bibi, Ms. Moyazan Bibi and Ms. Selina Bibi.

The Christian victims were then chased out of Mr. Shaike’s house and on to the streets where they became a sight of public amusement for a large crowd of about 500 Muslims, who simply watched on as the victims were chased around and verbally and even physically abused by the radicals who were armed with knives.

The radical group are believed to be led by Mr. Mohammed Aanu Shaike, who is notorious for publicly decrying against Christians even to the extent of publicly torturing them for their faith.

A case was filed later in the evening by some Christians at the Murshidabad Police station, in Nutangram village, but so far no arrests have been made.

– aicc

UP: Police stop a Christian convention

Uttar Pradesh, March 29, 2012: On 24th March, 2012 The Yeshu Mahatsava convention that was organised in Chadidiha, was disrupted by the Rampur police after complaints lodged by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).

Despite procuring the necessary permissions from the Associate District Magistrate to conduct the Yeshu Mahatsava Convention, the local police shut down the convention over allegations by the VHP that forced conversions was taking place. Fearing a possible backlash from the community, Sub-inspector RP Saroj arrived at the venue early in the morning and with drew the permission he himself had granted for the convention and asked for the stalls present to be removed.

VHP’s district chairman Mr. Omprakash Singh had made accusations that Christian Missionaries were converting people in the country by enticing them with money, and that they were sheltered by the government.

– aicc

AP: Land encroachment leads to the demolition of a church

Andhra Pradesh, March 29, 2012: On 2nd March, 2012 a Church in Urmila Nagar, Vijayawada was partially demolished as real estate developers try to illegally encroach on property for their development projects.

Bethel Prarthana Mandiram, a church in Urmila Nagar, Kabela, which had been running for over 13 years ago, was visited by labourers hired by town planning officers to demolish the church on 2nd of March. The labourers began this illegal demolition activity at around 3 pm, right after a Friday prayer service had been conducted. Pastor Immanuel of the church in Urmila approached the town planning office with the church’s property documents. According to the documents, the church property was allocated to Mr. Madala Yacob, the great grandfather of pastor Immanuel under a military quota during the British rule in 1930.

But according to new municipality zone survey the church property falls on land belonging to corporation 80 Field Map Book (FMB), which was used as an alibi to encroach the land.

Pastor Immanuel believes that there is a conspiracy between the real estate developers and municipal town planners. And although the municipal commissioner had clarified the matter regarding the church property based on the original documents, the church building was still demolished.

– aicc

Karnataka: 10 sentenced for forcible conversion

Karnataka, April 02, 2012: A local court today sentenced 11 persons on charges of trying to forcibly convert people to another religion in Kyatamballi village in the district in 2007.

The JMFC court ordered two of the 11 to undergo a jail term of 20 months,including two months of rigorous imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs 5000 each. The other nine were sentenced to one year simple imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs 2000 each.

Additional Senior Civil Judge and JMFC, H Gopalakrishna, passed the orders saying that the accused were propagating against a particular community and urging them to convert from one religion to other.

“The accused committed grave offence of creating enimity between the two communities. They committed offence prejudicial to maintainence of harmony between the two communities”, the Judge stated in the order.

According to charge sheet filed by Robertsonpet police, Kolar, the 11-member group had were openly condemning the deities worshipped by the people of a particular community and urged them to convert.

While two of the accused were sentenced under section 153(3) (promoting enmity between two different groups on grounds of religion), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal code, the others were sentenced under section 248(10) of the CrPC.

– zeenews