Daily Times

NEW DELHI – A group of hardline Hindu activists and police stormed a church in central India and stopped a wedding midway after accusing the pastor of forcefully converting the bride to Christianity, an official said on Thursday.

It comes as India’s Christian minority has sounded the alarm over a recent rise in attacks on churches and members of the faith, fuelling tensions over religious freedom in the diverse, secular country.

As the wedding got underway at the Church of God in India in Madhya Pradesh state, men belonging to the fringe Hindu outfit Bajrang Dal barged in accompanied by police, who arrested ten people, a church spokesman said.

Right-wing Hindu groups accuse churches and missionaries of targeting tribal people and other poor groups with the aim of converting them to Christianity, claims denied by the clergy.

“They says that it is a matter of forceful conversion and arrested the bride, the groom, their parents as well pastors of two churches who were present there,” Mariyosh Joseph, a spokesman for the church in Satna district told news agency.

“How can you storm into a religious place and stop a ceremony like this? You will never see such a thing happening at a temple or a mosque,” he said. The area superintendent of police said that the wedding was stopped because the girl was a Hindu and not yet 18, the legal age for women to marry in India.

“The girl is a Hindu and she is 17. We acted on a complaint made by the bride’s uncle. The matter is under investigation,” Mithilesh Shukla told news agency. The Indian Express daily said that the couple had converted to Christianity four years ago, but district authorities were not informed – a crime under state laws.

The church insisted the couple were Christians and accused the police of hiding behind excuses to justify their conduct. It follows a series of attacks on Christian religious sites. In March, three men were arrested in neighbouring Chhattisgarh state after they vandalised a church during Sunday mass.