Christmas began on a sad note and New Year heralded uncertain days ahead for hundreds of thousands of Christians in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh following a series of coordinated attacks, displacing more than 1,000 and injuring many.
A fact-finding team comprising human rights activists, lawyers and journalists visited two affected districts, Narayanpur and Kondagaon, from Dec 22 for three days.
Social boycotts and violence forced hundreds of indigenous tribal Christians to flee their homes, which started in the second week of December.
Nearly 18 villages in Narayanpur and 15 in Kondagaon were attacked by suspected right-wing Hindus. Many people were injured during public beatings when they refused to give up their Christian faith.
Urgent steps should be taken to facilitate the return of victims to their villages, the fact-finding later told a press briefing in the national capital New Delhi.
People were attacked and displaced for their Christian faith, the fact-finding team, led by Irfan Engineer, director of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, which works for social harmony, said in New Delhi.
According to the team, people with disabilities, pregnant women and children were also targeted.
The team whose members were drawn from the All-India Peoples’ Forum, All-India Lawyers’ Association for Justice and the United Christian Forum visited relief camps where the uprooted Christians were housed.
It asked the authorities to improve basic facilities in the camps till the victims are in a position to return to their respective villages.
“There were reports of a series of attacks on tribal Christens from Dec. 9 to 18,” Father Nicholas Barla, secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) Commission for Tribal Affairs, told UCA News on Dec. 29.
Barla, a member of the fact-finding team, said, “Those displaced were told to denounce their Christian faith and convert to the Hindu religion, failing which they would have to leave their village or face dire consequences, even death.”
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