34-year-old missionary, along with 13 prayer partners and short-term missionaries, was praying with a Christian family in a village in the disputed northern state of Jammu and Kashmir on October 23 when eight police officers interrupted the fellowship.
The cops informed the group, who were from Tamil Nadu in South India, that local Palal villagers had complained about the gathering and were preparing to attack them. The cops instructed them to leave immediately and offered protection to get them out of the village safely. While initially scared, the missionary was relieved that the police had offered to help them. The missionary asked CT not to name him and his organization as he could be arrested for his work.
The group followed behind the police vehicle in their white minibus. But only 500 meters into the ride, about 40 young men armed with iron rods and sticks blocked the one-lane dirt road. They pulled the minibus doors open to beat and kick the passengers, smashed its windshield and windows, and shouted slurs.
The mob of Hindu nationalists accused the group of forcibly converting local Hindu residents to Christianity.
Of the eight police officers who had driven ahead of them, only one tried to help the victims, the missionary recalled, while the rest stood and watched. At the time, he wondered if police had conspired with the mob to enable the attack.
The beating left at least four members of the mission team, including one woman, injured. After the attack, the head of local police department, Mohita Sharma, arrived and helped the victims reach their lodgings safely. She advised the local family that hosted the missionaries to register a formal complaint against the attackers.
The next day, the police department suspended the eight officers for negligence of duty. Authorities also arrested the two lead attackers, Ravindra Singh Thela and Rohit Sharma, but soon released them on bail.
This story was originally published in christianitytoday.com. Read the full story here.