By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
KARNATAKA, INDIA (Worthy News)-- For two consecutive Sundays, church service was disrupted in Karnataka while clergy were roughed-up and arrested on false forced conversion charges.
Rev. Sangappa Hosamani Shadrak was attacked by 20 Hindu activists while he was celebrating Sunday services in the home of a parishioner. The Hindus desecrated the eucharistic bread and wine and assaulted Shadrak, who lost a tooth; he was then taken to another village where he was left tied to a tree.
After Inspector Choudhary freed the clergyman, he took him and some parishioners to a police station from where Shadrak was sent to Jamkotai prison for detention on unspecified charges.
GCIC President Sajan K. George said that for two Sundays in a row, church service was disrupted, Pentecostal clergymen insulted and churches ransacked.
"The aggressors walk free," sad George. "Sixty-four years since independence, religious freedom does not exist in states like Karnataka, Orissa and Gujarat. This is a serious blot on secular India."