Guwahati: Three Swedish preachers, including two women, Hannah Mikaela, Marcus Arne Henrik Bloom and Susanna Elisabeth Hakanason arrested in the Naharkatia area by Assam police for violating visa norms. The arrested Christian missionaries were indulging in conversion process violating the visa norms in upper Assam.
Three preachers from Sweden were taken into custody for violating their visa provisions by attending several religious meetings in Dibrugarh district of Assam organised by Churches on Wednesday, the police informed.
A case had been filed by the police against the three for attending religious programs intended for conversation in the Ghinai area in Dibrugarh district while travelling under tourist visas, police officials in Dibrugarh said.
The arrested preachers were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate court and found guilty under the Foreigners Act. The court directed the deputy commissioner and the district police of Dibrugarh to arrange for their deportation.
The three-day prayer meeting was organised by the United Church Forum, a body of different churches. Locals alleged that missionaries intended to convert people, mainly tribals, in the name of healing during the three-day event.
The tourists will be sent to Guwahati on Thursday and subsequently deported to Sweden by the competent authority. It should be mentioned that Assam Police had last month deported 17 Bangladeshi clerics who were violating tourist visa norms by organising religious meets for radicalised Muslim youths in remote areas of Biswanath Chariali district in North Assam.
