Source:  www.assistnews.net

Date:  October 22, 2007

By James Varghese
Special to ASSIST News Service

RAIPUR, CHHATTISGARH, INDIA (ANS) -- A Christian convention meeting was disrupted by Hindu radicals and they had posed a threat of attack on the further meeting ahead, but failed in Raipur in Chhattisgarh state, India on October 20.

This news was issued by Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) in their website www.persecution.in

A convention was organized by the church of God in Chhattisgarh from 16- 21 October 2007. It was their 59th General Convention which was held in the Church in a place called Rajatalab, Raipur.

The Convention started on the 16th October and it was to end on 21st October. This Church THE CHURCH OF GOD was founded by the late pastor and "apostle", P.S. Samuel who his friends described as a "great visionary and a man of God."

On the 20th of October, the church had a baptism service in the morning around 11:00 AMand the Hindu radicals from a group called Dharma Sena (Religious Army) clandestinely video graphed the baptism service by the sitting on a tree near to the baptism water tank. Then they went and showed the video to the police saying that the church of God is indulged in converting people and filed a case against the church and the pastor, Thomas Mammen.

Later in the evening as the meeting was going on, during singing and worship time, suddenly the City Superintendent of Police Mr Shashi Mohan Singh with the Superintendent of Police Lal Umed Singh, around 8 Dharma Sena members and the Raipur Magistrate tried to enter the meeting premises forcefully. But the sisters of the church blocked them at the entrance. On hearing the commotion Pastor Thomas Mammen came out and took the officials and the Hindu radicals to his office .The visitors demanded the Pastor to furnish them with the list of persons who accepted Christ. On receipt of the list from Pastor, officials told the Pastor to call some of the believers accepted Christ to be interrogated.

After completion of the interrogations, the officials told pastor that they would return the next day (21st Sunday morning) for further investigations .The Pastor and the believers are planning to plead with the officials not to disturb the convention meeting on Sunday (21st Oct).

Some of the believers overheard that Dharma Sena were scheming to create further disturbance to disrupt the convention on 21st morning.

In a Telephone conversation with ANS about the threat of further attacks on the meeting the next day by Hindu radicals, Mr. Sam, the co-coordinator of Global council of Indian Christians (GCIC) said "I spoke to the Pastor of the church and he said that there was no any attacks on the meeting the next day. Everything went peacefully."

The Church of God in Rajatalab has a membership of over a thousand believers. Pastor of Rajatalab church is Thomas Mammen, 36yrs old, married to Jibi and has a two year old son.