India persecution: Pastor’s father murdered by Animist relatives

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Seven animist relatives of Christian pastor Ramesh Bumbariya in India’s Rajasthan state have been charged with murder and attempted murder after they first killed his father with an ax and then tried to kill him too during an attack at his home on May 18, Morning Star News reports. 

Enraged that Pastor Bumbariya had become a Christian, an armed group of his animist relatives laid siege to his home in Thep village, Udaipur District, Morning Star News reports. The pastor’s father, Bhima Bumbariya, was outside the house when the relatives arrived; he was attacked first and was pronounced dead at Maharana Bhupal Government Hospital in Udaipur City. 

During the attack, Pastor Bumbariya was beaten unconscious, sustaining serious head injuries and requiring surgery for a wound to his hand. His uncle Naniya Bumbariya was also beaten about the head and required medical treatment.

“My cousins and their families insist that we abandon our Christian faith and follow the ancestral faith. When we refused and remained firm in our Christian beliefs, they began to create trouble for us by raising land issues,” Pastor Bumbariya told Morning Star News. “They killed my father, and they wanted to kill me also,” Pastor Bumbariya added.

India ranks 10 on the 2021 US Open Doors Watch List of 50 countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian.

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