A 14-year-old Christian boy in eastern India is fighting for his life a month after suspected Hindu extremists threw flammable liquid on him and set him on fire, sources said.
“He is very, very critical,” said Dr. K.N. Tiwari of the burn unit of Appolo Burn Hospital in Patna, Bihar state. “His survival chances are low.”
On Aug. 11 three unidentified men on a motorbike threw the liquid on Nitish Kumar as he was returning home to Bihar state’s Kamta Nagar village, Gaya District, from his early morning routine of purchasing fresh vegetables. Drenched, Nitish initially thought they had mischievously thrown water on him, he said.
“But soon my skin began to burn,” Nitish told Morning Star News, in agony. “The burning sensation increased with every passing second. I dropped the basket and ran towards my house [750 meters away] screaming and howling.”
The motorbike did not stop, and in his pain he had no way of trying to see its license plate, he said.
The fire burned 65 percent of his body, with 15 percent deep burns, said Sushma Sharma, a hospital volunteer treating Kumar. Pastor Rajkumar Bharati, also known as Began Mochi, head of the church the Kumar family attends in Kurwa, said the fire burned him in back from neck to knees and in front from his lower chest, stomach and groin down to his knees, along with the back of both hands.
His family has faced opposition from Hindu extremists from Nitish’s village and from Kurwa since they left Hinduism for Christianity two years ago, said Nitish’s 17-year-old brother, Sanjeet Kumar.
“A month before the attack, some extremists spread word in the village that they would expel all the people who follow the Christian faith from the village,” Sanjeet told Morning Star News. “We also heard about it, but it did not deter us from our faith. And suddenly this attack took place.”
Everyone in their church has faced Hindu extremist hostilities, he said. In December, Hindu extremists blocked the routes of Christians going to Sunday services in Kurwa and questioned them, he said.
“They would question everybody as to why do they go for prayer,” Sanjeet said. “They used to ask us if we had been given money or other allurement to attend the meetings, or were we forced to do so. So all of us clarified that nobody asks us to come to church. We all go to church of our own will, and we go there for the Lord.”
The Kumar family also worships each evening in their home with about 20 others, and Sanjeet, about to enter the 10th grade, said that he and Nitish also went to other places to lead worship services.
“We know that those who belong to Christ have to face persecution and have to take the narrow road to enter into God’s kingdom,” he said.- Christian Headlines
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