Christians to hold special prayers against ‘attacks’

Christians will hold three-day special prayers from March 4 at 100 places across the country for an end to the "attacks" on churches and the "hate campaign" against the community, a group of clerics said here.

"We are going to pray in churches for three days from March 4 to 6," pastor of the Jabalpur-based English Methodist Church pastor F J Valsalen said on Sunday. He said the prayers would be held in six districts of Madhya Pradesh - Indore, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Damoh, Gwalior and here. One of the organisers insisted that the prayers were not held for publicity purpose. "We are passing through turbulent time....Our churches are being attacked and false cases are being slapped on our ministers (clerics) and a smear campaign to defame us is being run. Forcible campaign ghar wapsi (re-conversion to Hinduism by right wing organisations) is underway to torment us," a cleric alleged.