Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Srinagar (Agenzia Fides) – It is urgent to save the Protestant Pastor Chander Mani Khanna, falsely accused of forced conversions and the victim of a deportation order issued by a local Islamic court, which also concerns four other Christians, including the Catholic missionary Father Jim Borst (see Fides 13/01/2012). According to local sources of Fides, Christians in Kashmir, "today feel insecure and exposed to violence," and they fear for the life of Pastor Khanna, who "is being targeted by Islamic militants."
Some Christian NGOs such as "Catholic Secular Forum", "All Indian Christian Council" and "Global Council of Indian Christians," have launched a campaign in defense of the faithful in Kashmir and ask for the urgent intervention of federal institutions in India.
The associations, which defend the rights of Christians in India have launched a petition in defense of Khanna, explaining that the charges against him are false and that the Islamic court has no legal jurisdiction in the state, nor on the non-Muslim believers. The petition asks the government of the Indian state of "Jammu and Kashmir," to intervene to protect the Pastor and enforce the law and the Constitution of India, not the sharia, blocking the fundamentalists.
The state of "Jammu and Kashmir", a Muslim majority, unlike other states of the Indian Union does not have an "anti-conversion" law: thus the allegations are totally without any legal basis. The reverend limited himself to baptizing some of the inhabitants of Kashmir, who had asked him to become Christians, and he did so only after receiving proof of their faith.
NGOs categorically deny the absurd and unfounded rumors that they see in the presence of the Pastor in Kashmir "a conspiracy financed from abroad" and denounce the attempt to eliminate the Christian presence from Kashmir. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 24/01/2012)
