In an attack on a church service in northern India that left a 55-year-old man unconscious, the wife of a pastor hid her husband after Hindu extremists said they would kill him, sources said.
Women and children were not spared in the attack by 25 masked extremists armed with wooden sticks last month on the Full Gospel Pentecostal Church in Baburia Khera, Uttar Pradesh state, after which police treated church members as criminals.
“They were looking for the pastor, saying, ‘We will kill him today,’” pastor Kamlesh Kumar’s wife, identified only as Shashikala, told Morning Star News. Her voice shaking, she said, “We had hidden him inside a room and locked the room from outside. They went on hunting for him everywhere. This is how we were able to save his life.”
Ram Prasad, 55, tried to stop the attackers from hitting congregation members in the April 29 assault, and the Hindu extremists seized him and beat him until he lost his consciousness, she said.
“I saw Ram Prasad fall on the floor bleeding profusely after being hit by a brick, but the attackers continued kicking him and hitting him with wooden sticks until he lay motionless on the floor,” Shashikala said.
The masked men forced their way into neighboring homes in search of Pastor Kumar, terrifying the resident women and girls.
“They manhandled…
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