Chhattisgarh church attack, anti-conversion row: 10 points

After a tribal mob attacked a church in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district on January 2, protestors on Tuesday demanded the release of five accused arrested in the case, as well as for the administration to allow a BJP delegation trying to reach the spot.

Narayanpur:Following the arrest of five people - including tribal leader and local BJP member Rupsai Salam - on Tuesday in relation to the recent vandalization of a church in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district, both BJP leaders, as well as members of tribal outfit Sarva Adivasi Samaj, staged a demonstration.

Opposing the arrests, protestors demanded the immediate release of all five accused. They also demanded that the BJP delegation formed to look into the matter be allowed to visit the spot. Later they also held a 'chakka jam', which brought traffic on the Kondagaon Narayanpur main road to a halt. The road was reopened by police personnel later in the day. Demonstrators included members of the tribal community from Benur, Edka and Bayanar Parganas in the district.

Here are 10 things you need to know about the issue:

• The matter escalated after a meeting was held on Monday by members of the tribal community over alleged conversions taking place in the district, and to discuss a clash between two communities that took place earlier on January 1 in Edka village of Narayanpur.
• The demonstrators, who had gathered near Vishwa Dipti Christian School in the area, eventually charged at the church in question, located within school premises.
• Amid interference by police personnel who tried to disperse protestors, Narayanpur SP Sadanand Kumar received a blow from behind, sustaining a head injury in the process.
• The alleged conversion row escalated further afterward, as the BJP announced the formation of its own committee to probe the incident. The team was stopped from going to Narayanpur at the Benur police checkpost, from where they turned back towards Kondagaon around 9 pm on Tuesday.
• The alleged conversion row has been going on for some time, with media reports indicating a parallel uprise in attacks on the Christian community in the districts of Narayanpur and Kondagaion.
• Chhattisgarh witnessed the second-highest number of recorded attacks against Christians in India, according to a report back in 2021 by United Christians Forum, Association for Protection of Civil Rights, and United Against Hate.
• Another report on December 29 noted that close to 1,000 Christian tribal persons were attacked due to their faith between December 9 and 18, 2022, while several among them were forced to convert to Hinduism.
• There were a series of attacks in about 18 villages in Narayanpur and 15 villages in Kondagaon displacing about 1,000 Christian Adivasis from their villages, Irfan Engineer, director of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, stated at a press conference last year.
• The current scenario has yet again provided center stage to the issue, as BJP claimed in the state Assembly on Tuesday that the flare-up could have been avoided if police took timely action against alleged religious conversions.
• Following the escalation, the district has remained witness to heavy police deployment.