Mob vandalises prayer corridor over burial dispute in Bastar

In yet one more episode of violence over the burial rights of Christians in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar area, a mob in Kanker district vandalised a prayer corridor on Thursday (December 18, 2025). A number of folks, together with police personnel, sustained accidents in intermittent clashes over the previous three days.

In response to eyewitnesses, tensions had been constructing over the previous few days in Bade Teoda village in Antagarh tehsil of Kanker after the daddy of the village sarpanch, Rajman Salam, was buried on village land on Tuesday (December 16, 2025).

In a video launched on Tuesday, a day after his father’s dying, Mr. Salam mentioned that he had transformed to Christianity however his father had not. He additional mentioned that he had requested village elders to permit the burial, however they insisted that it couldn’t be carried out in his presence. He then buried his father in keeping with Christian rituals, triggering a backlash. He alleged that his political rival objected to his presence at his father’s burial and instigated others towards him.

One other villager instructed reporters that the burial was opposed because the household needed to carry out the final rites in keeping with Christian customs as an alternative of following tribal customs.

Minor clashes had been reported on Tuesday, adopted by a extra intense confrontation on Wednesday (December 17, 2025). A big contingent of police was deployed within the village, and efforts had been made to defuse tensions. On Thursday morning, the physique was exhumed and brought elsewhere, whilst police tried to dealer peace between the 2 sides.

Regardless of these efforts and heavy police presence, offended villagers attacked a prayer corridor positioned a brief distance away.

A number of visuals purportedly from the village surfaced on-line on Thursday, exhibiting males operating with bamboo poles and arguing with police personnel. Footage of vandalism and arson on the prayer corridor additionally circulated. In a single video, a bunch of males is seen attacking the prayer corridor with bamboo poles, whereas one other exhibits them getting into the premises.

A senior police officer mentioned on Thursday that the Government Justice of the Peace issued an order for the exhumation of the physique in accordance with authorized provisions primarily based on the villagers’ criticism.

“The inquest and autopsy examination will likely be carried out, and vital authorized motion will likely be taken thereafter. This concern led to a tense scenario within the village. Villagers clashed with one another, and stone-pelting incidents occurred. Police personnel and the Government Justice of the Peace took vital steps to manage the scenario. Property was additionally broken throughout the incident,” the officer mentioned.

Burials of deceased individuals from households which have transformed to Christianity stay a delicate concern in Bastar, with a number of cases of violence and aggressive opposition by non Christians. Earlier this yr, a person from Bastar district moved the Supreme Court docket searching for burial rights for his father on his personal land after opposition from fellow villagers. The highest court docket directed him to bury his father in a Christian burial floor in one other a part of the district. In its order, the court docket mentioned it was pained that an individual needed to strategy the Supreme Court docket for burial rights as a result of authorities had did not resolve the matter on the village degree. Kanker and Bastar are among the many seven districts of the Bastar division.