Group of christians gathered to demand the release of church pastor accused of murder, abetment of suicide
Lakhimpur (Assam): A crowd of people drawn from the Christian community, belonging to several churches of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, mobbed the office of the deputy commissioner Thursday to protest against the arrest of a local pastor and his assistant for the gruesome killing of a Hindu tribal youth for trying to marry a Christian girl without agreeing to convert.
The crowd was demanding the release of the GEL Lutheran church Ismail Shabbar (44) pastor of Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church and his assistant Niranjan Aian. The two are accused of inciting a mob of local Christians to attack Biki Bishal’s house, drag him out when he refused to convert and lynch him to death, hanging his body from a tree later.
The incident is from the tea garden area of Koilamri Balijan in Assam.
Bishal’s body was found hanging from a tree on September 12, night after the mob attack.The protesting crowd alleged that the accusations against the pastor were false that he was being targeted in order to show Christian missionaries in a bad light.
Meanwhile, Legal Rights Observatory (LRO), a human rights organisation that played a major role in bringing the incident to light, called the protest an “old tactic to pulverise the government using mobocracy”, in a tweet on Thursday.
The LRO also tweeted a picture of the poster which called upon people of the Christian faith to assemble against the “humiliation of Christians” caused by Lakhimpur Police.
When asked for a comment, BM Rajkhowa, Lakhimpur’s superintendent of police, told Firstpost the investigation against the pastor is currently ongoing and the demand to release him just does not make sense.
“They (Christian Missionaries) should not make it an issue of religion, instead should realise that the pastor has been arrested for his involvement in the Criminal activities,” the police official said.
Rajkhowa added that after the end of the police remand of the four arrested, including the pastor, his assistant, the girl’s father and uncle, they have added two more sections in the FIR, apart from murder.
The new sections slapped on the accused include IPC 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.
Biki Bishal and his Christian girlfriend were in love and wanted to marry. The girl had also moved in with Biki in his house.
Later, a large mob drawn from local churches gathered outside Biki’s house and threatened him with grave consequences. While the mob took the girl with them, Biki was given the option to convert to Christianity or break things off with the girl.
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