Source: Morning Star News, April 20, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pastor Sanjay Bhandari had taken his wife for a medical check-up earlier this month when they decided to visit her sister in the same area in Karnataka state, southwest India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile we were still having tea, a few men barged inside the house and, grabbing me by my shirt collar, they dragged me outside, accusing me of carrying out conversions,\u201d Pastor Bhandari told Morning Star News. \u201cI tried very hard to explain that it was my relatives\u2019 house and that we were only paying them a casual visit, but the men refused to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hindu extremists in Halaga village, near Belgaum city, Belgaum District also ignored the pleas of his wife\u2019s family that day, April 5. The men took Pastor Bhandari outside, where 50 to 60 Hindu extremists were waiting, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mob paraded him a mile to the rented worship hall where he has led Sunday services for five years, hitting and kicking him along the way, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey continued to hit me as they dragged me,\u201d said Pastor Bhandari, a resident of Belgaum city. \u201cThey abused me and Jesus Christ in filthy language and pressured me to hail, \u2018Jai Sri Ram [Hail lord Ram],\u2019 as they beat me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The mob accused him of converting their community to Christianity and trying to convert the family he was visiting\u2014though they are already Christian, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As COVID continues to surge in India, we\u2019re seeing numerous stories about people impacted and others trying to help\u2014including members of the Indian diaspora. Did you realize the Indian diaspora, 18 million strong, is the largest in the world<\/a>? (The Economic Times).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source: Morning Star News, April 20, 2021 Pastor Sanjay Bhandari had taken his wife for a medical check-up earlier this month when they decided to visit her sister in the same area in Karnataka state, southwest India. \u201cWhile we were still having tea, a few men barged inside the house and, grabbing me by my … Continue reading INDIA: Pastor Attacked and Forced into Hindu Ritual<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10079"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10080,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10079\/revisions\/10080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}