Police Raid Home of Prominent Indian Christian Rights Leader
The home of a leading Indian Christian human rights advocate was raided by police on Monday night, reported Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom.
The home of a leading Indian Christian human rights advocate was raided by police on Monday night, reported Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom.
The Center received reports from sources in India on Tuesday that the home of Sajan George - the head of the Global Council of Indian Christians based in Bangalore, South India - was raided by police. GCIC defends the human rights of India’s Christian minority including Emmanuel Mission International (EMI).
“The raid on George’s home, far from Rajasthan, by police agents from Rajasthan cooperating with local law officers, indicates that Rajasthani authorities are extending their campaign of harassment to distant parts of the country,” said Paul Marshall, Senior Fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom in a news report released by the Center on Mar. 7. “India’s national government must use its powers to stop this export of religious repression.”
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George’s home was reportedly raided at 8:30 p.m. on Monday by 15 police agents, including some from the northeastern state of Rajasthan, where EMI is headquartered, as well as local authorities. The police reportedly interrogated George’s wife and daughter, demanding to know about George’s relation with Archbishop M.A. Thomas, the founder of EMI, when they discovered that George was not home.
Police made comments indicating that they had been wiretapping George’s phone, according to the Center’s sources.
The raid on Monday is the latest of police harassment of those connected with EMI, an organization that runs 103 orphanages nationwide, as well as 11,000 churches and over 140 schools and a hospital.
EMI has been targeted by radical Hindu groups and their supporters in the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which controls the Rajasthan state government. Several of EMI workers have already been detained by Rajasthan police this year while others have received death threats.
The mission group has also provided aid to victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami, the Bombay floods, the Gujarat earthquakes and Hurricane Katrina.
EMI founder, Archbishop Thomas, has received the Mahatma Gandhi Award and the Padma Sheri award – India’s highest civilian honor – and has served India’s needy for over 40 years.
The Center for Religious Freedom called on the central Indian Government and the Indian National Human Rights Council to investigate and stop ongoing police harassment of George and Emmanuel Mission International (EMI).
