JAMMU: Police have registered a case against a group of unidentified people accused of attempting to lure residents of a village in Kathua district of J&K into religious conversion .
On Oct 24, eight police personnel in Kathua, including a sub-inspector, were suspended after a video clip purportedly showing a group of locals attacking religious preachers in Juthana area went viral.
A case was registered in connection with the assault and one of the accused was arrested. Police are looking for others.
Officials said the incident took place in a rural area of Kathua district, where Christian missionaries were reportedly “persuading” villagers to change their religion. They said another FIR was registered on Oct 25 against unidentified people following a written complaint filed by the locals alleging attempted religious conversion.
SSP Mohita said further investigation is underway.
On Sept 20, various Hindu organizations had held a demonstration in Samba over alleged attempts at religious conversion by groups of missionaries under the pretext of social gatherings.
Such allegations are not new to the state.
In 2011, a pastor named C M Khanna was booked for forcible religious conversion in Kashmir and arrested. According to police, he revealed that during questioning that around 15 local Muslims had been converted to Christianity by him.
Back then, in the wake of such reports, the Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir , Bashir-ud-Din, had issued a fatwa directing three Christian priests to leave the region in 2012, while a fourth priest, who was the principal of a prominent missionary school, was put on notice.
On Oct 24, eight police personnel in Kathua, including a sub-inspector, were suspended after a video clip purportedly showing a group of locals attacking religious preachers in Juthana area went viral.
A case was registered in connection with the assault and one of the accused was arrested. Police are looking for others.
Officials said the incident took place in a rural area of Kathua district, where Christian missionaries were reportedly “persuading” villagers to change their religion. They said another FIR was registered on Oct 25 against unidentified people following a written complaint filed by the locals alleging attempted religious conversion.
SSP Mohita said further investigation is underway.
On Sept 20, various Hindu organizations had held a demonstration in Samba over alleged attempts at religious conversion by groups of missionaries under the pretext of social gatherings.
Such allegations are not new to the state.
In 2011, a pastor named C M Khanna was booked for forcible religious conversion in Kashmir and arrested. According to police, he revealed that during questioning that around 15 local Muslims had been converted to Christianity by him.
Back then, in the wake of such reports, the Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir , Bashir-ud-Din, had issued a fatwa directing three Christian priests to leave the region in 2012, while a fourth priest, who was the principal of a prominent missionary school, was put on notice.
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