By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondnent
HYDERABAD, INDIA (Worthy News)-- Last month, police arrested seven members of a Hindu Vahini group accused of attacking the pastor of the Hebron Church at his home in Vikarabad, 39 miles from the Indian state capital of Hyderabad, Deputy Superintendent of Police Ram Mohan Roa told Morning Star News.
Pastor Orucanti Sanjeevi later died of injuries incurred during the violent assault.
Vikarabad was strongly dominated by Hinduism, said Rev. Madhusudan Das of the Evangelical Fellowship of India, but Sanjeevi's church grew as more of the locals came to know Christ; as a result, some Hindus harbored strong resentments against him.
On the night of the attack, the Hindu Vahini came to the pastor's home pretending they wanted to pray with him. But when his wife Pramila opened the door, they hit her with an iron rod; they then stormed into the house, stabbed the pastor and beat him with clubs and the same rod they used on his wife.
The attack against Sanjeevi was well-planned and police believe he was on a "hit list" of Christian targets, said Roa.
Last December, the Vahini group also went to the house of Baptist Pastor Nama Moses under similar pretenses and viciously beat him.