Mob Attacks Indian Pastor and His Family as Villagers Try to Drive Him Away from Home
A pair of men in central India attacked a local pastor and his family, attempting to drive them from their home because of their Christian faith.
Pastor Motu Sodi, who lives in Chhattisgarh state’s Sukma District, was approached by a mob on April 13 and 14 at his home, where his church also gathers, according to a May 1 report from Morning Star News.
Sodi was then accused of luring villagers away from their tribal religion and illegitimately converting them to Christianity.
The two men, who were part of the mob, then allegedly attacked Sodi, as well as his wife, his sister who is not a Christian, and his niece.
“Even though they came with a huge mob, none of them stepped forward to hit us, except for the two men,” Sodi described to Morning Star News.
Sodi said their weapons of choice were wooden sticks.
Morning Star News shared an image of Sodi with lash marks on his back, apparently caused by the sticks.
He also reportedly sustained internal injuries.
“One of them caught hold of me while the other beat me,” Sodi recounted.
Sodi said that the attackers warned him, “We won’t let you stay in the village or on your own property. We want to chase you away.”
Meanwhile, Sodi’s wife sustained a head injury.
“I cannot put into words, how much blood was oozing out of her head,” Sodi said.
“She was drenched in blood.”
After the attack, the two men told Sodi they had filed a complaint with police for the purported fraudulent conversions.
Sodi then filed a complaint for the beatings.
But police described the incident as a “scuffle” between the men over a “land dispute,” effectively downplaying the attack.
“We told the police that we did not indulge in the assault but that they came and assaulted us brutally and injured us,” Sodi continued.
India currently ranks 12th in the world for persecution of Christians, according to a report from Open Doors.
Beyond an ascendant Hindu nationalism in the nation’s politics, mobs in rural villages sometimes attempt to drive Christians from their ancestral homes.
Local authorities often turn a blind eye to the mob violence.
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