New Delhi: A group of unidentified people entered a church in Thakkarpur village of Punjab’s Tarn Tarna district on Tuesday night and ravaged the statue of Jesus and Mary. They also set ablaze the pastor’s car before vanishing from the place, reports said.
The involvement of two people became clear from the CCTV footage, which showed them barging into the church premises and carrying out vandalization of the property.
In the footage, they could be seen breaking the statues of Jesus & Mary and inside the church and then later setting the car on fire. Visuals showed the car getting engulfed in flames.
According to local inputs, as many as 4 assailants entered the Church around 1 am. They threatened the guard outside the Church and also tied him with a rope.
The incident comes in wake of warning by Akal Takht Jathedar, head of the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, who blamed the Churches for “forced conversions” by Christian missionaries.
“Sikhs and Hindus of Punjab are being misled and converted. This is happening right under the government’s nose. No government is ready to act against them (Christian missionaries) due to vote bank politics,” Giani Harpreet Singh had said in Facebook live video yesterday.
The Akal Takht Jathedar also demanded from Punjab government that Nihangs be set free. Some Nihangs were recently apprehended by the cops after they disrupted a Christian religious gathering held in Daduana of Amritsar.
