Pastor Seriously Wounded, Father Killed in Northern India
Morning Star News India Correspondent | Morning Star News | Friday, June 4, 2021
NEW DELHI, June 3, 2021 (Morning Star News) – Relatives of a pastor in northern India killed his Christian father with axe and sword blows and seriously wounded the church leader and his brother for leaving their animistic tribal religion for Christianity in 2007.
“My cousins and their families insist that we abandon our Christian faith and follow the ancestral faith,” Pastor Bumbariya told Morning Star News.
“They killed my father, and they wanted to kill me also,” Pastor Bumbariya said.
The First Information Report (FIR) the Christian family filed with police states that the assailants first fired three rounds of gunfire that missed, then struck the pastor’s father with an axe and later with swords, resulting in his death.
“After they struck me thrice on my head with an axe and a sword on my neck, I fell on the ground unconscious, but they continued to strike me with the sword on my hand and my back,” Pastor Bumbariya said. “They stopped hitting me only when their swords began to bend. They left thinking I was dead.”
The assailants also attacked the pastor’s brother, Raj Kumar Bumbariya, uncle Naniya Bumbariya and two others. The 29-year-old pastor, his four children and wife lived in the house along with his parents and brother, all Christians.
Doctors at Maharana Bhupal Government Hospital in Udaipur City declared Bhima Bumbariya dead on arrival.
Pastor Bumbariya sustained serious head injuries and underwent surgery for a broken bone in his right hand, while his uncle Naniya Bumbariya also sustained serious head wounds, according to medical reports.
“All the seven attackers have been arrested and are in jail,” Chouhan told Morning Star News. “Two local guns, a sword, an axe and two thick wooden logs have been recovered from them.”
Pastor Bumbariya said he has not gone back home since his father was killed.
“I have not seen my mother since the attack,” he told Morning Star News, in tears. “I have not even comforted her at my father’s death.”
Pastor Bumbariya’s family left the village in 2017 to avoid the constant arguments and strife, he said.
They built a small house five miles away in Thep village, but the pastor’s step-uncles and cousins continued to trouble them, demanding that they leave there as well, he said.
He registered complaints against the relatives in 2017, 2018 and in 2020, but police took no action, the pastor said.
“On May 4, 2021, they came and assaulted us,” he said. “I went to the police station and submitted a complaint, but no action was taken…My father was also beaten thrice in the past.”
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