India Militants Attack Prayer Meeting, Pastors
- Religion Today
- Published Mar 12, 2012
![India Militants Attack Prayer Meeting, Pastors](https://i.swncdn.com/media/700w/crosswalk/resource/areas/crosswalk/resources/images/defaultimages/article-large-landscape.png)
March 13, 2012
Suspected Hindu militants in India's southwestern state of Karnataka broke up a Christian prayer meeting and forced two women leading the gathering to stop evangelizing, International Christian Concern reports. Local Christians said as many as 20 Hindu "radicals" raided the March 3 prayer meeting, insulted worshippers and ordered the two women leading the service -- both converts from Hinduism -- to stop the prayers immediately. The women, Parimala and Padmavathi, also lead a 60-member congregation that often gathers for prayer services at a rented home, and they have recently been distributing evangelical publications to local residents. The Hindu militants filed a police complaint against the women on charges of "forceful conversion" and pressured them to write down that they would stop prayer meetings and no longer conduct evangelical activities. The women were briefly held at the police station before the advocacy group Global Council of Indian Christians successfully intervened for their release.