NEW DELHI — Two men of traditional tribal religion in central India assaulted a pastor and his family for their Christian faith in an attempt to chase them from their land and home, sources said.
In a village in Chhattisgarh state’s Sukma District, the two men came with a mob to his home, where his church meets, accusing Pastor Motu Sodi of luring villagers from their tribal religion and fraudulently converting them to Christianity. The two men assaulted the pastor, his wife, his non-Christian sister and a niece, he said.
“Even though they came with a huge mob, none of them stepped forward to hit us, except for the two men,” Pastor Sodi told Morning Star News.
The area falls under the Gadiras police station in Korra Gram Panchayat.
Pastor Sodi said he and his family were beaten with thick wooden sticks.
“One of them caught hold of me while the other beat me,” said the pastor, who sustained internal injuries.
The attackers warned, “We won’t let you stay in the village or on your own property. We want to chase you away,” he said.
Pastor Sodi’s wife sustained a head injury and has not received immediate medical attention.
“I cannot put into words, how much blood was oozing out of her head,” he said. “She was drenched in blood.”
After the assault on April 13, the two attackers filed a complaint against Pastor Sodi at the Gadiras police station. Early the next morning, the two men returned, assaulted the family again and disclosed that they had filed a police complaint against them for fraudulent conversion.
This story was originally published in christianpost.com. Read the full story here.