India: youths arrested for forced conversion
November 3 (Compass Direct News) – Police in the southern state of Karnataka have arrested four more Christians on charges leveled by Hindu extremists.
Police in Udupi district on October 27 arrested four Christian youths, including three girls, for forcibly converting Hindus.
According to Dajiworld News Network, the Christians, identified only as Robin, Karen, Asha and Flavin, are from the Mabukal area near Brahmavar.
Police made the arrests after Girish Kundapur, the leader of a Hindu extremist organization, filed a complaint with police alleging they were “visiting the houses of Hindus and misleading the people.”
Kundapur also accused the Christians of forcibly converting people to Christianity. The youths refuted the allegation, saying they were not encouraging conversion but only preaching their beliefs.
“We have not forced anyone to get converted – we do not believe in forceful conversion,” Dajiworld quoted one of the arrested as saying.
Police are investigating the conversion charges against the accused.
Udupi district has a strong presence of Hindu extremists. The September 2006 issue of a monthly journal, Communalism Combat, said that anti-Christian incidents had occurred in several places across the Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts.
“At some places, huts belonging to Dalits have been destroyed, photographs of Christ have been burnt and Hindutva activists have attacked prayer meetings, all on the pretext of stopping forcible conversions,” it stated....
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