Pastor’s Father Beaten Unconscious in Extremist Attack

Pastor Shantilal Ninama of Believers Church told
Compass that the Hindu extremists beat his 65-year-old father until he
fell unconscious in one of the attacks last month.

On the
evening of June 8, after agreeing to do no further harm to Pastor Ninama
and his family in exchange for him dropping police charges he’d filed
over a previous attack, the enraged Hindu extremists stormed into his
home and began beating and stoning his father, sister, wife and three
children, he said. As he sought police help, his father fell unconscious
and his wife and two of his children ran out into the darkness. Another
daughter hid beneath a bed, and his sister escaped and hid in a valley.

“The
next day, I asked one Hindu extremist, Bhim Shankar Sharma, to give me a
copy of the agreement,” Pastor Ninama said. “But he got angry with me,
and verbally abused me and my faith, saying that I am an unclean person
because Christianity is an unclean and foreign religion, and that
Christians are not worthy to stay in India. He caught me by my collar
and slapped me on my face.”

The Rev. Prabhatkar Malladi,
secretary of the Udaipur Diocese in Rajasthan, told Compass that the
extremists were threatening to kill the pastor.

“The
villagers are not allowing any Christian leaders to enter into the
village to meet Pastor Ninama, but we are taking necessary steps to help
the pastor, and one advocate is now taking up the case,” he said.

Pastor Ninama also told Compass that the extremists were plotting to kill him.

“Well-wishers
are telling me to be careful and not to venture out alone, as the
extremists are looking for a chance to find me alone, kill me, cut me to
pieces and throw my body away,” he said.

He said local
extremists initially attacked him and his family for his faith in Christ
on June 4; Khatiya Pitakaniya assaulted him as he was repairing his
motorcycle.

“I was repairing the tire of my motorcycle when
one villager, Khatiya Pitakaniya, came and told me that he did not want
to see my face in the early morning as it will bring bad luck to him
because I am a Christian,” the pastor said. “Khatiya Pitakaniya grasped
my neck when I told him to stop pestering me, but he would not stop and
called his wife to bring a knife to kill me. His wife and elder brother
ran to get it.”

Bopal Ninama, the pastor’s younger
brother, came to rescue him. Pitakaniya later returned with his wife
Devali, Pastor Ninama’s older brother Naryayan Nimana and his cousin
Jeevan Ninama, and began stoning and cursing him, the pastor said. He
fled and locked himself inside his house.

Later the same
day, Pastor Ninama filed a complaint at Ghantali police station, and the
assailants were furious when they learned about it.

On June 6, the village head and elders called for a public meeting regarding the incident.

“Such
public meetings took place several times in the past to discuss on how
they could eliminate me from the village because of my faith in Christ,”
Pastor Ninama said.

The village head who summoned Pastor
Ninama to the meeting told him to gather 10 people from five neighboring
villages and offer the meat of five goats and five pots of alcohol as a
Hindu ritual to reconvert him back to Hinduism, he said. They also told
the pastor to burn his Bible and all gospel literature in front of
them, he added. The extremists told him that if he agreed to their
demands, they would give him all manner of support.

“I can leave everything—my family, my property—but I cannot forsake Jesus at any cost,” the pastor told the extremists.  

The next day, he said, they kept his father from obtaining an electricity connection for installing a water pump.

“They
told my father to leave Christianity and not to stay with me, or else
leave the area,” Pastor Ninama said. “After prayerful consideration, my
father decided to stay with me and be faithful to Christ till death.”

 The
extremists then told the pastor they would do no further harm to him if
he withdrew the police complaint. The pastor agreed, and on June 8 the
parties gathered to put the agreement in writing. They agreed that
anyone who disturbed the pastor and his family would be fined 5,000
rupees ($111) in exchange for Pastor Ninama dropping the charges, and
both parties signed it, he said.

“We went home happily thinking that we will not face any trouble from the extremists in the future,” Pastor Ninama said.

That
same evening saw the enraged villagers launching their assault on his
family. When Pastor Ninama ran to the police station for help, initially
officers said the area was not within their jurisdiction, but after he
pleaded with them they went back to the village with him, he said.
Sitting near the pastor’s house when he returned with police, the
extremists dispersed when they saw the officers.

On June 9,
Pastor Ninama went to the Piplekhut police station to report the
incident, but officers refused to file a First Information Report,
saying there were no eyewitnesses to the assault, he said. They later
filed a First Information Report after seeing medical reports describing the injuries to his
family, he said, but no arrests have been made.

Rajasthan
state has been a hotbed of anti-Christian activity since the late
1990s. Pastor Hari Shankar Ninama, 65, was praying for an 8-year-old
boy’s recovery from illness at a house in Ambarunda, Peepal Khoont,
Pratapgarh district on Feb. 1 when at least 10 Hindu extremists arrived
on motorbikes and attacked him.

The assailants beat him
and, putting him on one of their motorbikes, took him outside the
village, where they stripped off his clothes and struck him. Threatening
to kill him if he continued to spread Christianity, they left him naked
on the road and fled, he said.