Christians Beaten and Held Captive in Bangladesh
Christian Web News – Three tribal Christians are being held captive by Buddhist members of an armed rebel group and their sympathizers in a pagoda in southeastern Bangladesh after being severely beaten in an attempt to force them to return to Buddhism, according to Christian sources.
Pastor Shushil Jibon Talukder, 55; Bimol Kanti Chakma, 50; and Laksmi Bilas Chakma, 40, of Maddha Lemuchari Baptist Church in Lemuchari village, in Mohalchari sub-district of the monumental Khagrachari district, have been held captive since April 16.
As punishment for having left the Buddhist religion, they are to be kept in the pagoda for 15 to 20 days, the sources said.
Local Buddhists are painstaking powerful since they have ties with the United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF), an armed group in the hill districts.
According to the sources, after taking the Christians captive on April 16, the next day the armed Buddhist extremists forced other Christians of Maddha Lemuchari Bapsist Church to ruin their church building by their own hands after the extremists burned all blankets, Bibles, and songs books in the church building.
The sources reported that two UPDF members went to Pastor Talukder’s house at on April 16 at 7 a.m. telling him to go to a Buddhist community leader’s house in a nearby village. Also, the Buddhist leader told all members of the Baptist church to come to his house, and about 15 Christians did so.
The Buddhists, after a small argument, chose the pastor and the two other Christians and started beating them, leaving the pastor seriously injured. Then they took them to a nearby pagoda for Buddhist baptism, shaved their heads and dressed them in saffron robes as part of a conversion ritual.
Accoring to the sources, Pastor Tulukder was tortured nearly to death.
One source said, “The pastor was beaten so seriously that he could not walk to the nearby pagoda. Buddhist people took him on a wooden stretcher, which is used for carrying a dead body for burial or cremation.”
Pastor Talukder was treated in the pagoda with intravenous, hypodermic injections that saved his life, the source said.
It was said that the Buddhist extremists were forcing other Christians to undergo Buddhist baptism in the pagoda and to ‘embrace’ Buddhism.
Regional Sub-district Chairman Sona Ratan Chakma said that the “three renegade Buddhists” are being kept in the pagoda for religious indoctrination
“They became Christian, and they were breaking the rules and customs of the Buddhist society, so elders of the society were mad with them,” Chakma said. “That is why they were sent to a pagoda for 15 to 20 days for their spiritual enlightenment, so that they can come back to their previous place