Srinagar: A group of religious preachers was attacked in the presence of police officials in Kathua district, prompting the Jammu and Kashmir police to suspend eight police officials on Friday (October 24) for alleged dereliction of duties.
The action came after the accused officials including a sub-inspector were filmed watching a group of unidentified men, some of them wearing masks, pounce with iron rods and sticks on a passenger mini-bus in the Juthana area of Kathua.
The Kathua police have filed a first information report in connection with the incident, including under sections of the Arms Act, and at least one person has been arrested.
The video of the attack, which went viral on social media, shows at least four or five attackers smashing the front windshield glass and a side-view mirror of the bus, which was carrying a group of ten to 15 Christian preachers.
Some of the attackers are seen proceeding to deal with the passengers inside the vehicle as a group of policemen watch the violent spectacle without doing much to stop the attack.
Only one police official is seen trying unsuccessfully to stop an attacker who opened the door of the bus.
Anguished screams including those of females emerging from the vehicle are heard as the attacker pounces on a passenger on the front seat after opening the door, punching and kicking him, while another attacker in the background demands to see “other males”.
Kathua senior superintendent of police (SSP) Mohita Sharma said that the group of preachers had been invited by some locals to the area.
According to reports, rumours that the missionaries were attempting to convert the residents of the area to Christianity started doing the rounds there, which is believed to have triggered the attack.
SSP Sharma said that four or five men were involved and one of them, identified as Ravindra Singh Thela, has been arrested.
According to reports, Thela and his other associates have multiple FIRs registered against them in the Jammu division.
The SSP said that a case under sections 126 (2) (punishment for wrongful restraint), 115 (2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 191 (2) (use of force or violence by an unlawful assembly), 324 (4) (mischief), 351 (2) (criminal intimidation) and 352 (intentional insult to provoke a breach of peace) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 and sections 4 and 25 of the Arms Act has been registered.
“A manhunt is underway to nab the other perpetrators,” SSP Sharma said.
The identity of the other perpetrators and their credentials have not been revealed by the police so far. The Wire could not immediately confirm whether the attackers were connected to any political party.
According to the 2011 census, Christians formed a tiny minority comprising 0.6% of Jammu and Kashmir’s population. Some reports indicate that the population of Christians has grown significantly in the Union territory as compared with adherents of other religions.
Last month, some Hindu right-wing activists protested in the Samba district of Jammu against alleged attempts of forcible conversion by Christian missionaries under the pretext of social gatherings.
The activists had demanded that the administration take strict action against those involved in the “forcible conversions”.
In 2018, four Hindu families who had converted to Christianity were attacked and socially boycotted in the Nowshera village of Jammu’s Poonch district.
Their church was also set on fire by the perpetrators, forcing the government to set up a police post in their native village for their protection.
The issue of the allegedly forced conversion of people of other faiths in Jammu and Kashmir by Christian evangelists is not new.
In 2012, the Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir Bashir-ud-Din issued a fatwa directing three Christian priests to leave the region while a fourth priest who was the principal of a prominent missionary school was put on notice.
The Grand Mufti had alleged that they were responsible for “luring valley Muslims to Christianity”.
In 2006, Bashir Ahmad Tantray, an engineer and a prominent Kashmir convert from Islam to Christianity, was killed by unknown gunmen in Baramulla district.
The article was published in the thewire
