India: freedom of religion?
December 22 (Compass Direct News) – A group of Hindu extremists in the southern state of Karnataka have tortured two young women and a girl who converted to Christianity in an attempt to “reconvert” them to Hinduism.
The incident took place in Guruparahalli area, 12 kilometers (8 miles) from Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, on December 14. A man identified only as Ramesh broke into the house of three sisters – Jyothi, 20; Nandhini, 18; and Jalaja, 16. He pressured them to reconvert and beat them for refusing.
The victims, who work in a garment factory, attend the Assembly of God church. Ramesh, who used to live nearby until three months ago, had been opposing the sisters since they converted to Christianity from Hinduism a few months ago.
“The extremists intruded into the house of the women in the evening and got violent upon finding a Bible and other Christian literature on a table,” Dr. Sajan K. George, national president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), told Compass.
The intruders told the sisters that they would give them whatever they could ask for, and that Jesus would do nothing for them. The sisters did not react. This made the extremists more furious, and they threw the Bible and Christian literature on the floor and stamped on them.
“The fanatics also replaced a Christian calendar with that of Sai Baba, a Hindu god,” George said. “They pressured the women to worship the picture of Sai Baba and apply vermillion on their forehead as a sign of their conversion to Hinduism.”
When the sisters refused to do so, the extremists beat them. “They pulled the youngest sister’s hair, dragged her and banged her against the wall,” he said. “They beat the other two sisters also very brutally. One of them fainted, as she is an asthmatic patient.”
Sadly, he added, the parents did not come to rescue their daughters. “The fanatics continued to beat and torture the sisters for over four hours and left the place only at 2 a.m.,” George said...
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