On January 2, a mob vandalised a church after around 2000 people, mostly Adivasis held a public meeting in protest in against alleged “illegal religious conversions” in the tribal dominated Narayanpur.
TCN News
NEW DELHI — Five persons including a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader were arrested on Tuesday (January 2) in connection with a mob attack on a church in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district, police said.
The five arrested persons have been identified as BJP leader Rupsai Salam, Pawankumar Nag, Atul Netam, Ankit Nandi and Domendra Yadav, The Indian Express reported.
On January 2, a mob vandalised a church after around 2000 people, mostly Adivasis held a public meeting in protest in against alleged “illegal religious conversions” in the tribal dominated Narayanpur. The crowd dispersed in groups after the meeting, some of whom entered a church located in Viswadeepti school premises and vandalised it.
The protestors then carried out violent demonstrations in other places in the city including Bakhrupara Bazaar. The demonstrations took place a day after a clash between two groups of Adivasis had left eight persons injured, including Superintendent of Police Sadanand Kumar.
Chattisgarsh: Church vandalised during protest in Narayanpur, senior cop injured
“Around 2,000 people were present for a meeting held in Narayanpur. Local tribal leaders Rupsai Salam, Narayan Markam and few others were leading the gathering,” Inspector General of Police (IG) Sundarraj P told reporters.
On Tuesday, the police registered three first information reports against unidentified persons for rioting, assaulting police personnel, and vandalising the church.
Police have also registered an FIR on the clash between two Adivasi groups at Gorra village under Edka police station limits on January 1, Inspector General Sundarraj P told PTI.
The FIRs have been registered under Indian Penal Code Sections 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 153 (a) (promoting enmity between different groups), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), reported PTI.
Chhattisgarh: What made tribal Christians flee from their villages amid anti-Christian violence?
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the police stopped two BJP MPs Santosh Pandey and Mohan Mandavi and MLA Shivratan Sharma from entering Narayanpur, citing security reasons.
“The Congress government has been behaving like dictator and murdering democracy,” BJP’s Chhattisgarh unit chief spokesperson Ajay Chandrakar told PTI. “Stopping our leaders from going to Narayanpur clearly indicates that those who are involved in religious conversions have protection of Congress.”
TwoCircles.net earlier reported how scores of tribal Christian families are fleeing villages in Chhatisgarh’s Narayanpur districts following attacks by right-wing groups.