A four-day Vacation Bible School (VBS) programme attended by 200 local children was disrupted and the venue vandalised by a mob of Hindu extremists in an area known as Prem Nagar in the capital city of Delhi on 4 June.
The incident took place on the last day of the VBS programme, run from 1–4 June by the Children's Gospel Club. The programme was organised in an open space on the street in front of church member Mahesh Kumar’s house.
A mob of about 40 activists from Bajrang Dal (a militant Hindu organisation that forms the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad) stormed the venue.
‘The mob pulled down the tent and curtains, overturned the refreshment table and spilled the drinking water. They sabotaged the instruments used for worship and threw the chairs here and there while abusing us with the filthiest language’, Rajpal Yadav, the pastor of the church and co-ordinator of the VBS, said. He added: ‘We quickly instructed the volunteers, the staff of the VBS and the children to escape while the attackers were busy vandalising.’
Yadav and Kumar were the only ones left at the scene. The attackers questioned Kumar as to where the others were and started to assault him. ‘By then the police arrived and took us to the police station’, said Yadav.
Yadav has been conducting regular Sunday worship services in Kumar’s house for the past three years in Prem Nagar and ministering in the area for more than ten years. ‘The people who attacked us were not from our area, they seem to be summoned by someone especially for this task’, said Yadav.
‘Around six months ago, our well-wishers had warned us of plans being formulated by Hindu extremists to stop our church services and hamper our ministry in that area. The ministry has been growing rapidly with people from other faiths getting added to the church family and many miracles are taking place’, he said.
Yadav and Kumar were kept inside the police station for about three hours while the agitated mob was outside the police station shouting anti-Christian slogans and accusing the Christians of forceful conversions and demanding their arrest. The police let Yadav and Kumar go once the mob outside the police station had dispersed.
Praise from Police
‘The policemen have been very understanding and protective towards us; they praised us for doing a good work by running programmes for children and doing service to society’, said Yadav.
Due to fear of further attacks, Yadav conducted the Sunday service in a different location on 5 June. ‘The people in our church said that they are ready to lay down their lives for Christ, but as pastors we have to ensure the security of our congregation.’
