The persecution of Christians and opposition against Christians is increasing day by day in the states of Northern India. Christians are being persecuted in many places of J & K. Gospel meetings are now impossible to conduct openly. Those who have come forward from Hinduism are being pressurized to reconvert. Given below is the heart rending testimony of Pastor Ramesh who has been working in Rajouri District since 2000.
TESTIMONY OF PASTOR RAMESH
My native place is Bambla village in the district of Rajouri, J & K. In October 1996 I accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Personal Savior. I was thrown out from my house. I came out for the ministry on the 14th of January 1997. Our fellowship started the ministry here in this district way back in 1972. There is no other church or ministry working in this district. The Lord gave me the burden to take the responsibility of the ministry here in the year 2000. Since then we have been laboring here. This is a pioneer mission field. We serve the Lord by faith; we do not have any monthly salary.
On the 30th of June, three members of our team - two brothers Yashpal and Sahil and one sister Manjeet had gone to a nearby village to preach the Word of God. The anti- Christian elements of that village caught hold of them and after beating them, took them to the police station. They were threatened to leave Rajouri. A believer had seen these brothers and the sister being taken by these people to the police station and had informed us. I went to the police station along with the team leader Pastor Pramod. They asked us to make an agreement with the people that we would from henceforth not return to preach there. Only after making this agreement would they release them. They told us to leave Rajouri the very next day and warned us not to preach anywhere in Rajouri. The next day the police let off the team members warning us not to return to the city and work. The police told us that from that time onwards if any new people would come to the house of Prayer for the work of the ministry, we would have to inform them at the station about them otherwise they would accuse us of being militants and would deal severely with us.
Though the situation was tense the Lord granted us the grace to stay on and continue the work. We were ready to pay any price for the sake of the Gospel, so that the un-reached people in this region may hear the Gospel and receive salvation.
On the 30 th of August I along with brother Yashpal, Sister Manjeet, Sister Manju were on a pastoral visit. When we were passing through the market, some people called me. I recognized them to be the same people who had previously threatened us. I signaled the sisters to keep on walking. They gathered around me and started questioning me. They asked me why I had become a Christian and how much money I had received to become a Christian. I replied that I had not changed my religion. I was a Hindu but I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Upon hearing this, they asked me to exalt their gods and goddesses. When I refused to do so, they dragged us off to a shop nearby.
Ten to twelve people started beating us and accusing us falsely. Their leaders came after sometime. The leader caught hold of me by the neck and threw me to the ground. He instructed the others to beat us in such a manner that there wouldn’t be any evidence against them if the police would come after them. They told the people to bring wooden canes. They made us lie down and started beating us with a bamboo stick firstly on our backs and then afterwards on the soles of our feet. They hit me again on the head, this time with the stick and I fell down. I looked out from the shop and saw that they had also captured the sisters who were with us. They were also brought to the shop. They accused us of being militants. All this took place right in front of the police office. They took the photograph of the four of us and then took us to the bus stand. We were shown a revolver by one of them and were told that if we would create any sort of trouble for them, they would finish us off then and there itself. From there they made us walk to the police station.
A lot of people had gathered at the station. Those with whom we used to trade for the wares which we sold at our stall were also there. They all questioned us and before I could reply to their questions, they started beating the other brother and me angrily. The police officials did not even try to interfere with what the mob was doing. They were accusing us of supplying girls, providing money, and offering jobs to each individual who would change his religion to Christianity. They also accused us of having sexual relationships with the sisters who were staying with us. One of the police officers came from within his office carrying a heavy rod with him. This was about one and a half foot long and three inches thick. We all were beaten severely with this.
There were other people who were locked up with us in that same room. We shared the Word of God with them. One of them opposed us. In the evening another officer came. The sisters were called for questioning first. Sister Manjeet was beaten. Next, I was called. We were then accused of being agents of the ISI of Pakistan. The sisters were taken to another room where they were questioned till 1a.m. in the morning.
The next day, we were taken to the magistrate who asked us why we were converting the people to Christianity. He then ordered us to be sent to the Central Jail of Rajouri. Before taking us to the Jail, they took us to the medical hospital to have us medically examined so that their charge of us having sexual relationship with one another could be confirmed. As the doctor was unavailable at that time, we were sent away. Our Bibles and ID cards were taken away from us at the police station and whatever little we had left with us was taken from us.
We were at first tossed into a separate cell all by ourselves and were told not to talk to each other. We used that little time to worship God and get prepared for further beatings.
There were many prisoners inside the Central Jail. Some abused me. Because of being beaten severely, blood was also coming out in my stool. I could not even squat in the toilet to relieve myself. Later, the pain became so severe that I had to relieve my self in the toilet while remaining seated with my feet spread out in front of me. They asked me to work in the kitchen. In my weak condition, I tried to do what I could in the kitchen. Afterwards, when the other prisoners saw how sick I was, they had me removed from the kitchen work as they were afraid that I might die and that they would be blamed for my death. I was also asked by the prisoners to massage them. As I was massaging the feet of a particular inmate, I kept on praying for him. This inmate later told me to pray for him! Some of the prisoners mocked me. Gradually the Spirit of God started working in that cell. As I was having fever, I lay down. The prisoner whose feet I had massaged, thinking me to be asleep, told the others that he believed in what I had said and that from henceforth no one should trouble me. We shared the gospel of Christ with many of the inmates. The fear of God came upon all who were with me in the cell.
We were told to appear before the magistrate on the 5 th. It was during this time that the sisters who were with us were taken to the hospital for a medical examination. There they had to strip themselves before a lady doctor and a male doctor. After trying unsuccessfully to come up with some evidence which would bolster their claim that we were having illicit sexual relations with them, they gave up and angrily told the sisters to leave. At this time, the magistrate allowed the sisters to call up the church in Jammu and inform them about our condition there. Then we were taken back to prison. After some days in prison, the thought of being granted an early release from prison faded from my mind, and I settled down to a life in prison. The next appearing before the magistrate was for the 14 th. As God would have it, we were released from prison after 14 days on bail. Please uphold us in your prayers. (Courtesy: TFC Magazine, November - 2006)
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