A group of Christians, including women, were physically assaulted by members of Hindutva organizations to the point where a pastor passed out and needed to be taken to the hospital. Hindutva is a religious nationalist philosophy that aspires to a Hindu nation.
Mahesh Mahananda and several others, including women, were attacked on Jan. 21 at approximately 5:30 p.m. while they were returning from a lunch gathering at Shiv Prasad Mehto’s residence in Vasudevpur village, Kunkuri in Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh, which falls within the jurisdiction of the Duldula police station.
Speaking to The Wire, a member of the Christian group only known as Kishore claimed that they were ambushed by individuals brandishing sticks as they left Mehto’s house.
Kishore made the startling observation that these were the same people who had been actively taking part in protests outside the Ram temple.
“As we left Shiv’s house, they stopped us with sticks in hand. They were the same people who had been participating in Ram temple rallies regularly,” he said.
The attackers reportedly subjected the group to physical violence and harassed women who attempted to intervene.
Pastor Mahananda was rendered unconscious by the attack, so his family rushed him to a nearby Samudayik Swasthya Kendra. For more medical care, he was then directed to Holy Cross Hospital in Kunkuri.
This story was originally published in christianpost.com. Read the full story here.