Five arrested for attacking Jaipur pastor

JAIPUR: The brutal attack on a pastor on Sunday was carried out at the behest of a local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) office-bearer, sources said, and the Rajasthan police have arrested five youths in this connection on Monday. 

Pastor Walter Masih was seriously injured when the masked group barged into his house, which also serves as a church, in the afternoon. They proceeded to beat him up mercilessly for his alleged use of derogatory language against Hindu gods.

“We arrested five persons from the Ashok Nagar police station area of the city in connection with the attack on the pastor,” Superintendent of Police (Jaipur South) Anil Paliwal said. All arrested are between 20-25 years of age, he added.

According to sources, the main reason behind the attack was the need for religious supremacy in the Sodala region. While the VHP had made Virendra Singh Ravana its Jaipur city-in-charge, Masih was working in the region for the past eight years too.

Dissent against Masih in the Bhojpura and Sudarshanpura localities spread some eight months ago, when people allegedly complained to Ravana that he was encouraging their children to eat meat and also making derogatory remarks against Hindu gods.

The VHP activists had earlier approached Masih and held discussions with him in this regard, but the latter had denied the allegations. Masih had told them that he had never spoken ill of any other religion and that he only spoke about Lord Jesus.

When things came to a head, the youth gathered at Hanuman Vatika in the Bhojpura locality, and then headed towards the pastor’s house. “There was a knock at his door and when he opened the door, a group of masked people suddenly attacked him with wooden sticks. He was severely beaten,” an eyewitness said.

While the pastor did not name any attackers, he said they were from the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. Police said that Masih’s condition is improving.

With inputs from Agencies