Pastor of Rankham Baptist Church, Tarun Gogoi.
Dimapur, May 25 : The pastor of Rankham Baptist Church of Selenghat in Jorhat district of Assam is reported to have been arrested and tortured on the night of May 8 by personnel of the Assam Police Battalion posted at Rajabari Border Observation Post (BOP). The action of the police is said to be on suspicion that the pastor in cahoots with Naga factions and that he was being used by Nagas to “convert the local populace.”
The pastor, Tarun Gogoi, was arrested and tortured on suspicion of having links with Naga underground groups and of receiving donations from Nagaland for construction of a church. He was later handed over to Teok Police Station. On receiving this information, church leaders led by the Executive Secretary of Sibsagar Baptist Association Biren Gowala and a host of other church leaders went to the police station and got him released the next day.
Rankham Baptist Church was established in the year 1986 and is located at the foothills bordering with Yajang-C village of Nagaland and Selenghat Tea Estate in Assam. It is understood that the church is nearing its Silver Jubilee year. The present church, which was constructed in the early 80s, was found to be insufficient to accommodate the congregation and so its members had resolved to reconstruct a bigger church at the present location.
Recently, the neighboring Yajang-C village church community donated a load of stone chips to the ongoing church construction as a goodwill gesture. Later, rumor mongers lost no time in reporting to the authority complaining against the pastor. Rumors were floated that the Naga people were using the pastor to convert the local populace to Christianity by extending donations in cash and in kind. It was also alleged that the area was to be developed ‘by means of sponsoring other infrastructures which may gradually lead to occupying Assam’s land by the Nagas’.
The administration has ordered a stop to the construction works temporarily while movement of people from neighboring Nagaland state to this area has also been restricted. The Assam Valley Baptist Mission (AVBM), a conglomeration of 44 Baptist churches of which Rankham Baptist Church is also an active constituent member, convened an emergency executive meeting today at its Nakachari HQ.
It has demanded immediate legal action from the authority against those guilty for the ill-treatment meted out to the pastor. A public meeting at Rankham public ground on May 29, Friday, is scheduled to be held from 10 AM to discuss the entire affair. The Jorhat district administration and Police, Mariani MLA Rupjyoti Kurmi, officials from Sibsagar Baptist Association, Assam Valley Baptist Mission, Border Peace Coordination Committee (A-N), Officer-in-charge of Teok police, Rajabari BoP, Chutiabari BoP, Village Defense Party (VDPs) of this area, church leaders and prominent public leaders are invited to this gathering.
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