Source:  www.assistnews.ent

Date:  September 23, 2007

By James Varghese
Special to ASSIST News Service

CHANGANASSERY, KERALA, INDIA (ANS) -- According to the news website of Salem Voice Ministries (http:// salemvoice.org), a group of narcotic sellers attacked a Christian aid worker, who is also a prayer warrior, in Changanassery in Kottayam district of Kerala, India, on Sunday evening, September 16.

Fatimapuram Parayil Thomas, 30, was severely beaten in front of the KSRTC (Kerala State Road Transport Corporation) bus stand by the selling agents of narcotic distributors and admitted at Changanassery Taluk hospital with serious injuries.

Thomas is a Christian aid worker and an active member of the Salem Voice Ministries prayer fellowship. He earns for his family from driving an auto-rickshaw (three wheeler).

The narcotic sellers are centralized in Changanassery town and secretly selling opium and other drugs to the youth.

Thomas keeps his auto-rickshaw in front of a bus stand at Changanassery town to pick up travelers. Recently he helped the police to catch somebody with narcotics and that is believed to have provoked them to attack him.

Paul Ciniraj, president of the Christian Ministers of the Churches of India (CMCI) and the director of the Salem Voice Ministries condemned the attack toward the Christian aid worker and prayer warrior Thomas.

Changanassery police have registered a case and are investigating it.