Chhattisgarh: Dispute over a Christian burial triggers communal clashes in Kanker district

A dispute over a Christian burial in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region triggered communal violence in Kanker district on Thursday, leaving several persons injured and a prayer hall vandalised, The Hindu reported.

At least 20 police personnel, including Additional Superintendent of Police Ashish Banchhor, were among those injured while trying to control the clashes, The Indian Express quoted officials as saying.

The tensions began on Tuesday in Bade Teoda village after the sarpanch Rajman Salam buried his 70-year-old father a day after his death. In a video released the same day, Salam said that he had converted to Christianity, while his father had not.

Salam claimed that he sought permission from village elders to bury his father according to tribal customs, but was told that the burial could not take place in his presence because he is a Christian.

He then went ahead with a Christian burial on his private land, after which the clashes were reported, according to The Wire.

“Everybody should be allowed to bury their dead,” Salam told the news outlet. “We are ready to compromise and bury him again as per local traditions, but they have to allow our presence.”

Salam also alleged that his political rival mobilised Hindutva workers from neighbouring villages and demanded that his father’s body be exhumed, The Indian Express reported.

“The police also asked me to give permission to exhume the body to prevent tensions from worsening, but I refused,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.

Clashes broke out on Tuesday and Wednesday, after which the police cordoned off the area. On Thursday, tensions escalated when a mob armed with sticks breached the police barricades and entered Bade Teoda village, triggering fresh violence.

Salam alleged that the police did not stop the mob and instead pressured his family to withdraw from the dispute, The Wire reported.

“They only intervened when their own were assaulted,” the news outlet quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, acting on complaints from residents, an executive magistrate later ordered the exhumation of the body under legal provisions, The Indian Express quoted the Kanker police as saying.

“The inquest and post-mortem examination will be conducted, and necessary legal action will be taken thereafter,” the newspaper quoted the police as saying. “This issue led to a tense situation in the village.”

Despite heavy police deployment, mobs attacked churches and homes of Christians in the area, a local journalist told The Wire.

“The body was taken away without our permission,” Salam told the news outlet. “Churches were torched and my home was set on fire.”

Also read:

• Why a Christian pastor was denied a burial in his own village by India’s Supreme Court
• House churches in Chhattisgarh face an informal ban, say pastors