Locals claim that the Christian conversion groups have recently become a major threat and Christian evangelists aim to violently expand the Christian presence in the area by either converting or eliminating Hindus.
Guwahati: Miscreants cut down a hundred-year-old banyan tree worshipped by Hindu people for years in the Katigorah area of Cachar district in Assam. Locals complained that Christian Khasi miscreants had cut down the age-old banyan tree and vandalised a Shiv Ling and a Trishul placed under the tree on November 22.
Hindu Rakshi Dal and Hindu Chhatra Sangh submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner, Cachar and asked him to take action against the local Christian miscreants for vandalising a Hindu place of worship in Mahadevtilla in the Katigorah. The Assam-Meghalaya border area where the incident took place has a large settlement of Khasi community Christian people.
Locals accused that Khasi Christians had cut down the banyan tree and uprooted the Shiv Ling. The Hindus in the area considered the Banyan tree extremely sacred and worshipped the Shivling beneath it every day.
Some of the local Hindus said that the Christian miscreants threatened the Hindus with dire consequences if they returned to worship the tree temple in the forest area.
The Hindu organisation asked the Deputy Commissioner of the Cachar district in Assam to secure the place from the miscreants. They also demanded that the Shivling and Trishul be restored in the same place.
The local Manipuri and Bengali Hindus protested and filed a complaint with the Forest Department and the Cachar Police and accused the police aren’t doing much to nab the miscreants.
Locals claim that the Christian conversion groups have recently become a major threat for them. Local Hindus believe that these Christian evangelists aim to violently expand the Christian presence in the area b y either converting or eliminating Hindus.
Subhash Dutta, a member of Hindu Chatra Sangh, said that on November 17, when some Manipuri Hindus went to perform Pooja, they were threatened by the Christians and warned not to come back for worship again. They informed the police about the incident. The police team met the Khasi Christian leader with the Manipur Hindu community leader. The Christian leader tried to mislead the police by saying Hindus worshipped another tree, to which the Hindus objected and said they had been worshipping the tree for over 100 years. But between 20th and 21st November, Christian miscreants cut down the banyan tree and vandalised the Shiv Ling and Trishul, he added.
