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New Delhi: Local opposition to a Christian man’s burial at a Chhattisgarh village reached a violent crescendo in which a mob set a Christian man’s home on fire, vandalised churches and torched a prayer hall. Stone pelting by the mob injured 20 police personnel.

The Badetevda village in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district had been on edge for the past four days over a dispute between a Christian family, local villagers and Hindutva groups. The dispute had to do with the burial of a Christian man’s father.

Footage accessed by The Wire shows a home being set on fire and a vigilante vandalising the property with a bamboo stick. Angry mobs armed with bows and arrows were seen rampaging through prayer halls in the presence of police.

In Badetevda village, Kanker, Chhattisgarh a lcoal Christian home and prayer hall were attacked and set afire by a mob over a burial dispute. Photo: Video screengrab

On December 15, Rajman Salam, 36, took his 70-year-old ailing father, Chamra Ram Salam, to the district hospital in Kanker. His father passed away within hours. Rajman, who was elected as the sarpanch last year and had converted to Christianity many years ago, initially wanted to cremate his father as per local Hindu traditions. “However, I was told that I can’t have the rituals because of my Christian faith,” he told The Wire.

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