INDIA – Pastor kidnapped twice, nearly killed
29/08/07
Assailants intended to crush his head with a stone
Pastor Mark Jaikumar is recovering in a private care facility in Bangalore, Karnataka state after being kidnapped, blindfolded and hearing Hindu nationalists' plans to kill him – his second abduction in one week.
Pastor of the Divine Gospel Church in Chelekere village, Bangalore, the 43-year old was abducted from the church compound at 8:30pm as he set off for home on Saturday 25 August.
He had just survived an attempt to kidnap and kill him on the previous Wednesday.
In Saturday's kidnapping, four men sitting in a car with the engine running were stationed near the church gate when Mark saw one get out. Assuming they needed assistance, he walked towards the man.
"The man then forced me into the rear seat of the car, got in after me and drove off," Mark told reporters.
"They blindfolded me and took my mobile phone. They kept cursing and mocking the Christian faith in filthy language and told each other that all my conversion activities would end once they killed me."
After he was driven around for about five hours, the car stopped near a bus station, Mark said, at Peenya, an industrial township about nine miles from Bangalore.
The kidnappers then removed his blindfold and forced him onto a bus, with one of the men accompanying him. Mark said they were heading towards Dharmastala which is about five hours by car from Bangalore.
"The road is a long, winding one with hairpin turns," he said.
"By God's grace, the bus developed a problem and was stalled at the side of the road somewhere near Sakleshpur, about 90 miles from Bangalore."
The bus driver ordered everyone off the bus, and on his way out Mark told the driver he was being kidnapped.
"Realising I had informed the driver, the accomplice got into the car that was following us and disappeared," Mark said.
The driver rang Mark's family, and the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) sent two cars to pick him up.
Previous murder attempt
Mark fared less well in the earlier kidnapping. He was on a routine visit to Ray Peace Ministry Orphanage in Sasulu village near Dodbalapur, about 35 miles from Bangalore, for their weekly prayer service with orphans and staff members.
At around 10pm, as he was leaving, five men armed with knives entered the orphanage and abducted Mark.
One of the men immediately gagged him, and the others carried him off to a lonely stretch of road.
"They ripped off my shirt, and then kicked, punched and hit me with their fists all over my head and body," he said.
"All the while, they kept cursing the Christian faith and made allegations of converting the orphans, then they tore my shirt and tried to strangle me, while one of the attackers took a big stone to crush my head."
The headlights of an approaching vehicle beamed onto them, he said, and the assailants ran away.
In severe pain, Mark managed to return to the orphanage. Staff members took him to the village dispensary for first aid, and the next morning he registered a complaint at the Doddabalavangala police station.
After the second kidnapping on 25 August, Dr Sajan K George, national president of the GCIC, told reporters the GCIC coordinator went to the Hennur police station to file charges, but officials refused to register a kidnap complaint. Instead, they registered a missing persons complaint.
At the Hennur police station, Inspector Somshekar Chabbi told reporters, "We registered a missing persons complaint as there was no evidence that Mark was taken against his will."
At press time, no arrests had been made in either of the cases.
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