Christian woman suffers miscarriage after being beaten, strangled

NEW DELHI — A Christian lady in central India suffered a miscarriage this month after tribal family who follow conventional faith beat and strangled her, sources mentioned.

Kunika Kashyap was greater than six weeks pregnant when she was admitted to Authorities District Hospital-Maharani in Jagdalpur, Bastar District, Chhattisgarh state in critical situation on Jan. 2. Tribal village headman Ganga Ram Kashyap, his spouse and grownup daughter had assaulted her that day after the headman started video recording her in hopes that he may catch her praying for a standard relative — additionally a Christian — as proof of some perceived crime, mentioned her husband, Mandu Ram Kashyap.

The 25-year-old Kunika Kashyap, of Bade Bodal village, had gone to go to her cousin’s sister, a Christian who was in poor health, about 150 meters from her dwelling. Tribal headman Ganga Ram Kashyap, brother-in-law of the sick lady and a cousin of Kunika Kashyap’s husband, noticed her getting into the home.

Get Our Newest Information for FREE

Subscribe to get day by day/weekly e-mail with the highest tales (plus particular provides!) from The Christian Publish. Be the primary to know.

Whereas Kunika Kashyap was sitting at her bedside, Ganga Ram Kashyap started recording her on his cell phone, mentioned Salim Hakku, a Christian chief from Jagdalpur.

“He suspected that Kunika might pray with her sick relative and wanted to capture it as proof on his cell phone,” Hakku instructed Morning Star Information.

Kunika Kashyap objected, however Ganga Ram Kashyap refused to cease, she mentioned.

“When he continued filming even after my protests, I swatted his hand away,” Kunika Kashyap instructed Morning Star Information from her hospital mattress.

She mentioned Ganga Ram Kashyap instantly started to assault her. His spouse and daughter rushed out of their home on the commotion and joined within the assault, Kunika Kashyap mentioned.

“Ganga Ram kicked my belly with his foot, strangled me and hit me violently,” she instructed Morning Star Information. “His wife and daughter joined him in beating me with a thick wooden bamboo, kicked my chest, my stomach, my head and my whole body brutally.”

Kunika Kashyap managed to flee, mentioned her husband.

“It was only God’s doing that enabled her to escape from three people continuously beating her from all sides,” mentioned her husband, who works as a mason and day by day wage laborer in Jagdalpur, 16 miles from their village.

Kunika Kashyap was in extreme ache when her husband rushed her to the federal government hospital in Jagdalpur, the place remedy started at round 5 p.m., he mentioned.

Medical information state that she was admitted with “neck pain, pain over right leg, pain over temporo-occipital and swelling, abdomen pain and chest pain, contusion over neck region,” and that she was six weeks and 6 days pregnant.

“The initial ultrasound showed that the fetus was alive,” mentioned her husband, “but by 6:30 in the evening she suffered a miscarriage.”

The couple has been married for 2 years, and this was her first being pregnant, he mentioned.

Discharged from the hospital on Jan. 6, Kunika Kashyap was nonetheless present process remedy at this writing.

Her husband, who, together with church elders approached the native police station and filed a written criticism in opposition to Ganga Ram Kashyap on Jan. 2, mentioned he suspects officers haven’t registered a First Info Report (FIR), as he has obtained no copy of 1.

“Though the police said they would register a FIR after the initial investigation, the police never called us for any inquiry, nor recorded my wife’s statement,” Mandu Ram Kashyap mentioned.

The police visited him and his spouse solely as soon as, on Jan. 7, and requested them in regards to the exact space of the home the place the assault had taken place, which they confirmed them, he mentioned.

Mandu Ram Kashyap and his spouse are one among 50 Christian households within the village of about 120 households. Youngsters of Christian mother and father, every has been Christian for greater than 20 years and attend the Episcopal Methodist Church.

Different incidents

Different Christians within the village have been focused, mentioned Mandu Ram Kashyap.

“We have been facing strong opposition for the past few years from the tribal village headman and the villagers,” he mentioned.

Christians should not allowed to attract water from the identical web site as different villagers, he mentioned, “nor are we allowed to bury our dead in our private property,” he added.

When Budai Kashyap, a 90-year-old Christian lady, died on Dec. 29, 2024, the Christian group buried her on personal land that they had bought. Headman Ganga Ram Kashyap reached the burial web site and requested if that they had permission for the burial. The confrontation escalated and changed into a bodily altercation between the Christians, the headman, and his males, Manu Ram Kashyap mentioned.

On Jan. 7, the son of Pastor Subhash Baghel wasn’t allowed to bury his father in Chhindawada village although a piece of the hamlet has been designated for Christians, Hakku mentioned.

“Even though his aunt and grandfather were previously buried in that graveyard, the villagers and the headman refused to let him bury his father,” he mentioned.

The pastor’s son filed a petition within the Chhattisgarh Excessive Court docket asking permission to bury his father within the village graveyard, which the court docket rejected on Jan. 12. Whereas his father’s physique awaits burial within the Jagdalpur mortuary, he’s interesting to the Supreme Court docket.

Hakku mentioned Christians have been shocked that authorities supported a shutdown in protest of alleged pressured conversion and the Christian group’s strife with headman Ganga Ram Kashyap. The protest was organized by the Sarva Adivasi Samaj (All Tribal Society) in Bastar District for Jan. 7.

“It was quite shocking that the authorities gave permission to the headman to carry out the protest despite written complaints against the headman by the Christian community in two different incidents,” Hakku mentioned. “Instead of acting against the headman, the police supported the shutdown. This shows the bias of the authorities.”

The hostile tone of the Nationwide Democratic Alliance authorities, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP), in opposition to non-Hindus, has emboldened Hindu extremists and others to assault Christians since Narendra Modi took energy in Could 2014, non secular rights advocates say.

India ranked eleventh on Christian assist group Open Doorways’ 2025 World Watch Checklist of the international locations the place it’s most troublesome to be a Christian. The nation was thirty first in 2013, however its place worsened after Modi got here to energy.

This text was initially revealed at Morning Star Information