HYDERABAD, India, November 19, 2018 (Morning Star News) – Villagers hostile toward Christians in northern India falsely accused a pastor of an illicit relationship with a woman and, in another village, burned a church building, sources said.
As people throughout the country on Nov. 7 prepared to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, neighbors alerted pastor Satpal Masih that his Pentecostal church building in Giddi village, Gurdaspur District in Punjab state, was ablaze.
The pastor dismissed the notion that the church building caught fire from a festival accident, saying Diwali begins well after 8 p.m., and he rushed to the burning building at 6 p.m.
“Moreover, the church is built on a farm, and it is nearly impossible that anybody would go onto a farm to play with fireworks,” Pastor Masih told Morning Star News. “After looking into all possibilities, we understand that it is an act done by some elements who oppose the ministry in the area. Police came to the spot and filed a First Information Report [FIR] after conducting a preliminary investigation. They clearly said that it can’t be an accident.”
He said the fire seemed to have been set on Diwali to look like a fireworks accident, but that there was no evidence of any such explosives and no loud noises until plastic chairs and equipment inside caught fire.
“In fact, it was a massive fire, and…
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