Pastor Mahesh Kumre of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chaukipura village (under tribal-dominated Sukhtawa block), Madhya Pradesh, said he found the building charred when he arrived at 11 a.m. to start worship service on Sunday morning (Feb. 12).

“The walls were blackened with the smoke from the fire, the electrical switchboard burnt, and the name ‘Ram’ written on one of the inside walls of the church in Hindi language,” Pastor Kumre told Morning Star News.

Just before Christmas, the 60-year-old pastor had finished laying the floor, applied a coat of paint and fixed a windowpane on the 5-year-old structure.

The assailant cut the mesh of the window to break in, and the pastor found the door open.

“All the furniture, including the chairs, wooden pulpit, carpets, table, tambourines, frame drums and a Bible were burned using some inflammatory liquid, which turned everything into ashes,” Pastor Kumre said.

He reported the matter to Kesla police, and investigating officers arrested Avneesh Pandey, a 24-year-old from Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh with a post-graduate degree in management who had been working in Itarsi, Madhya Pradesh the past year, said Narmadapuram Superintendent of Police Gurkaran Singh.

Source: christianheadlines.com