Pastor Antony was with his co-workers, Vijay Kumar and Moses, who were conducting Sunday school and Bible study in the village. They started the Sunday school by 4:30 PM and ended it by 6:00 PM. Then, as they were about to start the Bible study, Pastor Anthony saw a group of 30 RSS people and one among them shouted at them and asked the pastor to come out of the house where they conducting the meeting. As he went outside, the group turned violent, and shouted bad words accusing him and his colleagues being involved in “forceful conversion activity.”

On hearing this, the villagers who were present in the meeting, came out and then told these activists to go back to their villages as it is not their right to come to their village and fight for it. These people were from a village called Revadawadi which is 10 kilometers away from Tarihal. Previously in December a missionary was attacked and his vehicle was damaged in the village where this group came from.

The main people who initiated and organized the attack was Revanna Siddappa who runs a tea stall and others were Dasappa, Kumarappa and Suresh.

Pastor Anthony informed this matter to the police and asked to lodge a complaint. But the police refused and told them they would only do so if the Hindu extremists did it again. The pastor told the police that if any problem occurs in his ministry these people who were involved should be held responsible.

Speaking to ANS Pastor Anthony said, “We had experienced this kind of incident on July 14 in a prayer meeting. These activists came inside while the prayer was going on and stopped the prayer and took all the Bibles. This time, I am sure that they wanted to attack and physically harm us.”

James Varghese is a reporter for the “V” TV news in Gokak, Karnataka state, India, and is freelance journalist working for ANS.