The church remains closed while awaiting police action, sources said, over a month after Indian Hindu nationalist groups targeted two Christian congregations in Easter.
Hindu extremists threatened members and leaders of both churches in the west coast of Gujarat, and one of the churches was plundered and the pastor was assaulted, sources said. Three other churches have been attacked in the state, according to unconfirmed reports.
“They (Hindu group) knew Easter was a big day for us. Our church has the largest attendance, so they deliberately chose Easter day to disrupt our special “service,” said Pastor Dinesh Palmer of West Indian Pentecostal Church in Ahmedabad and President Gujarat of the All India Christian Federation.
Around 25 members of Hindu extremists Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrandhar, the youth wings of the VHP, attacked the church of Pastor Palma in Odhab region of Ahmedabad, during Easter Services, wielding wooden sticks and chanting Hindu slogans.
With about 125 Christians attending services scheduled for 9am to 2pm, Hindu nationalists broke in at 11am, and the pastor condemned forced conversion, Pastor Palmer said. Using dimly vocabulary, they began to question members of the congregation, demanding evidence of identity, asking about their names, and checking their religion.
Punching walls, pulpits and posts with wooden sticks, they wondered why people from Hindu backgrounds gathered for church services, Pastor Palmer said.
“Christians have witnessed that they believe in Jesus and experienced the power of prayer in their lives,” he told Morningstar News.
Several members of the congregation recorded videos of the invasion, which quickly reached a large audience on social media. While Hindu nationalist mobs verbally threaten Christians, several young children are seen in the church, scared and scared.
Church members confronted the mob. When Hindu nationalists praised their gods in a chant “Jai Sri Ram (Hail Lord Rama),” Christians responded “Harelujah,” the video shows.
When police were called and officers arrived, the Hindu mob fled.
“We continued to complete Easter services, provided special merchandise to the congregations and were able to return home without physical injuries, but there was a lot of mental trauma,” said the pastor, who leads the church at the rental facility.
Slat Attack
In Surat, 162 miles from Ahmedabad, Hindu nationalists attacked another Easter service on Easter Sunday.
About 15 Hindu nationalists entered Yesh Raja Sassan church on wooden sticks, and the senior pastors, Pastor Ganesh Vijay Koli and Associate Rev. Benjamin.
“They didn’t say the words. They just went in and started beating us right away,” Pastor Kori told Morning Star News.
Hindu nationalists then denounced the pastors of forced conversion and demanded that they be stopped immediately. They threw a chair and a lecture on the pulpit, and one of them attacked Pastor Kori with a church guitar despite efforts by a woman in the congregation to block it with her hands, he said.
“The guitar string broke and I clapped my hands, and her hands started bleeding,” Pastor Kori said. “One string bumped into my ear and I started slitting my ear and bleeding.”
The assailants also knocked down Rev. Benjamin with a thick wooden stick on his back, causing swelling, Pastor Kori said.
“While he was beaten, he fell unconsciously and dizzy,” he said.
The pastors had begun worship at 9:30am, but they were attacked 15 minutes after service. During the attack, members of the congregation became scared and were unable to record a video of the attack, he said.
“Thirty-five percent are long-time followers, while 65% are young seekers of different faiths,” the pastor said.
Christian leaders in the area reported three more churches being attacked. One was attacked in Baroda, one on Easter Sunday, the other on Easter Sunday, and another church the following Sunday, but Morning Star News was unable to confirm these incidents. All three churches are Pentecostal.
Police response
After the end of the Pentecostal church service in West India in Ahmedabad, around 12 church members went to the police to register for formal complaints.
“Police initially refused to register a formal complaint,” Pastor Palmer said. “They claimed they would remove all video evidence from their phones. They said that if they pursued the issue it could cause future attacks.”
The video was already virus and police had no choice but to register their complaints, he said.
Police officers pressured the complaint to themselves and signed the pastor. The same night, around 10am, police visited him and received another written complaint from him. The next day, the first information report was registered.
Police also received counterargument against Christians from local Bajiran Dal representatives.
Police detained some of the assailants after Christian filed a formal complaint in the Surat attack, Pastor Koli said. They claimed to hold them and Christians at the station for six to seven hours and draft a compromise agreement.
“Outside the police station there was a right-wing crowd of 150 to 200 people,” Pastor Koli said. “The police have given the injured Christian woman apologised and had her write an apology letter, so they agreed to a compromise and retracted the complaint.”
Several Christian leaders disagreed with the decision to compromise, but Pastor Kori said he did not want to focus on him in the Hindu nationalist group.
“We can’t do ministry there after that. If they file a lawsuit against them, they’ll target us,” he said.
Suffocation Church
A few days after Easter service, a Hindu nationalist group approached the landlord of Pastor Palmer’s residence and demanded that church leaders be expelled.
“The troublemakers not only went to my homeowner, but also approached the owner of the property that directs the church every Sunday,” Pastor Palmer said. “The owner of the property immediately refused to use the property to implement the church in the future.”
He has been holding church services online the week after Easter.
“I’ve approached some property owners to rent space to carry the church, but they all refused to give me the space to rent,” he said. “I have no other options left except to do the church online.”
Members of the congregation are primarily from slums, unable to afford smartphones, and they are not educated enough to participate in church online, he said.
In Surat, Pastor Kori had to close the church after Easter service.
“Our landlord refused to give us a hall in the future after the site was destroyed,” Pastor Kori said.
His church members are too scared to gather for the church. The assailants threatened Pastor Kori at the police station in front of the officers and said, “If we see you in the same place, we won’t spare you.”
Some independent churches without traditional church buildings said Leta Game, a Christian leader in Viara, Gujarat.
“Since Christmas 2024, there has been a lot of pressure on all independent churches, small churches, and churches operating from home,” Gamit told Morningstar News. “They are all forced to be shut down by the authorities. No permission is given to Christian meetings.”
Several Christians moved out of fear into different regions, she said because of the threat from Hindu nationalist groups.
“People are scared to come to weekly prayer meetings at home,” Game said.
Pastor Palmer continues to remain primarily in Hindu areas, but some Christians have suggested that he move to a new location.
“Living in this area scares us,” he admitted. “But this is what we chose when we accepted Christ in our lives.
The pastor submitted an application for action to be carried out against Hindu nationalist groups who threaten to harm him if they continue to worship the church. He has sent several applications to the police chief, local police station and administrative headquarters, but he is still waiting for action.
“Our country is a democratic nation. We have the freedom to follow the faith we want and worship those we want, but this incident shows that some people have put the law into their hands,” he said. “They are not afraid of the law or the systems.”
Christian support organization Open Door ranks 11th in India on the 2025 global watch list where Christians face the toughest persecution. India came in 31st in 2013, but has steadily fallen in the rankings since Narendra Modi took power as prime minister.
Defenders of religious rights point to the hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government led by Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, who said that since Modi came to power in May 2014, he has encouraged Hindu extremists in India.
