Chhattisgarh Church Attack: Tribal protests against religious conversions led to riots between the tribal communities and Christian tribals.
Chhattisgarh Church Attack: Five persons, including a local BJP leader, were detained by Narayanpur police on Tuesday for assault on police officers on Monday and the attack on a Chhatisgarh church within a school. In total, police have filed three First Information Reports (FIR) against unidentified individuals for rioting, attacking police officers, and vandalising the church. In the attack on the church on Monday, Narayanpur SP Sadanand Kumar received a head injury.
Visuals from India's Chhattisgarh where a mob vandalised a church and attacked police team that reached the spot to handle the situation on Monday afternoon. pic.twitter.com/nmNUiOkLZS
— Mahmodul Hassan (@mhassanism) January 2, 2023
Those arrested have been identified as BJP leader Rupsai Salam, 55, Pawankumar Nag, 24, Atul Netam, 24, Ankit Nandi, 31, and Domendra Yadav, 21. Except for Salam, who is from Remawand in Narayanpur, the rest are residents of Bakhrupara.
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The police detained the accused for violating the Indian Penal Code’s sections 295 (“Injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class”), 147 (“punishment for rioting”), 148 (“armed with a deadly weapon”), and 149 (“unlawful assembly guilty of an offence committed in pursuit of a common object”), section 153 (a) of the Indian Penal Code prohibits inciting animosity between groups based on (IPC).
Ladhakshya Roopsaye, Ankit Nandi, Atul Netaam, and Domend Yadav have all been presented before the magistrate’s court as the accused. A police officer assigned to moderate the crowd was hurt during the incident.
Narayanpur Superintendent of Police Sadanand Kumar suffered head injury amid the incident. pic.twitter.com/EiXSlD3Dej
— Mahmodul Hassan (@mhassanism) January 2, 2023
On December 31, 2022, tribes held protest marches against the purported religious conversions, followed by fights between the tribal communities and Christian tribals.
What took place on Monday?
On Monday, 2,000 people, the majority of whom were tribal, gathered in Narayanpur to express their opposition to suspected religious conversions taking place in the tribally predominant region.
After the meeting, the audience split up into smaller groups. Some went into the Viswadeepti school’s grounds and vandalised a church there.
The protesters went on the rampage and sparked violent protests in many locations throughout the city, notably Bakhrupara Bazaar.
The event happened in the late afternoon when a mob gathered close to the Viswadeepti school to protest a fight between two groups in Ekda village over the alleged conversion of the Christian missionaries to their religion.
Uproar Assembly in Chhattisgarh as the BJP tries to pressure the government over “religious conversions.”
The vandalism of a church in Narayanpur during a protest was discussed in the Chhattisgarh Assembly on Tuesday amid the brief suspension of 12 members of the opposition. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) asserted that religious conversion in tribally dominant areas has increased under the watch of the Congress government.
According to the opposition party, the violent episode in Narayanpur city on Monday might have been avoided had the police responded to reports of alleged religious conversions on time.
Six police officers, including an IPS officer, were attacked and hurt during a demonstration by a group of tribals in Narayanpur city, about 300 kilometres from the state capital Raipur, in response to an alleged instance of religious conversion.
By submitting an adjournment motion notice, senior BJP MLA Brijmohan Agrawal and other party MPs brought up the subject and requested a discussion on purported conversions in the state.
The proposal, however, caused a commotion in the House as Congress MLAs refuted their claims.
The opposition members rushed to the House Well, shouting, “stop converting tribals.” Dhanendra Sahu, a senior Congress MP, took the chair and announced the suspension of 12 BJP lawmakers before calling the House to recess for five minutes.
Sahu lifted the suspension of the opposition members as the proceedings got back underway. Agrawal, a member of the BJP, has nevertheless renewed his call for a debate on purported religious conversions in the state.
Then, BJP members put up signs declaring that the Congress government opposed reservations for underprivileged groups, which caused more chaos. Sahu then called the House to adjourn for the day.
“The incident could have been averted had the police and administration acted in time over complaints of alleged atrocities by Christian missionaries on local tribal people who don’t want to get converted. The Monday’s reaction was in response to attacks on local tribals by missionary goons from outside the state,” Singh alleged.
He charged that Narayanpur’s law and order were not being upheld by the Congress-led administration. State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ravindra Chaubey responded angrily to BJP allegations, claiming that the Narayanpur incident was a matter of law and order and that religious conversions were not occurring in the state as claimed by the opposition.
How is the case being investigated by the police?
According to G Sundarraj P, the police filed an FIR about a fight between two parties on January 1 in Gorra Village within the boundaries of Edka Police Station in the district.
For allegedly attacking a police team that had gone to Gorra after learning of the incident, a separate case was filed, and three people were taken into custody, he claimed.
The source further stated that seventeen additional people had been detained recently on suspicion of upsetting the peace in villages along the borders of Narayanpur and Kondgaon.
Several hundred Christian community members protested last month outside the Narayanpur Collector’s office, alleging crimes against them.
In the tribally dominant district, protesters from at least 14 villages alleged that they had been attacked and driven out of their homes due to practising Christianity.
The BJP claimed in the state Assembly on Tuesday that the Congress government has seen an upsurge in religious conversion in regions with a high tribal population.
If the police had taken action in response to accusations of conversions, they claimed, Monday’s violent scenes in Narayanpur would have been avoided.
