SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 12: A Christian prayer meeting in the remote Amjhar village of Dhanbad district triggered turmoil after villagers and activists of Bajrang Dal barged into a house alleging conversion of Dalit families and disrupted the function.
Though the police intervened immediately and got a compromise between both the groups to maintain law and order in the area, the tension still prevails in the village.
It all happened in Amjhar village under Baliapur police station, around 16 km away from district headquarters. The converted Dalit family Madhusudan Ravi Das had organized a special Sunday prayer in his house for mass. Pastor Asim Kumar Nandi also reached out to conduct the prayer.
Getting information that more Dalit families would be converted to Christianity in special prayer at Ravidas Tola, Amjhar villagers and Bajrang Dal activists reached the spot and began demonstrating in front of Madhusudan Ravi Das’s house. Fearing backlash from Bajrang Dal activists, the participants of prayer including the Pastor hid in the house and informed the police.
However, Baliapur police reached the spot and controlled the situation. Both parties were called to the police station.
The host Madhusudan Ravi Das denied that Dalit families were being converted to Christianity at the special prayer. He said the families have converted on a deep faith in Christianity and not on any pressure or profit.
But village chief Dharmendra Rawani and Bajrang Dal block president Sonu Giri alleged that in the name of special prayer, the poor and illiterate villagers are being converted to Christianity. In last three years, more than 50 Dalit families have been lured to convert.
However, Baliapur police station officer-in-charge Sweta Kumari said that police can’t stop any person from holding prayer in the village but outsiders can’t be allowed to participate. “There is peace in the village and entry of outsiders has been banned,” she said.
In two years, this is the second incident when villagers have protested the Christian Prayer meeting in the area of the Baliapur block of the district. In June 2021, villagers ransacked a makeshift Church in Belagaria Township of Jharia and fire displaced families after 22 people were converted by Kaina Pansal (Arunanchal Pradesh) and Sushant Pradhan (Odisha). The state home department had taken serious note of it and got investigated by the then city superintendent of police (SP) R Ram Kumar.
