The All-India Sikh-Punjabi Welfare Council has claimed that over 3,000 Sikhs have been converted to Christianity in the Terai district of Pilibhit along the India-Nepal border in the last few years.
The community welfare organisation has drawn up a preliminary list of 160 affected families and sent it to the local administration on Saturday, seeking action against Christian missionaries from Nepal allegedly responsible for the conversion. A copy of the list has been forwarded to chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
“We have been trying to take steps to prevent such things, but a Father of a church in Nepal is trying to lure our community members to Christianity and has succeeded on many occasions,” said Harpal Singh Jaggi, president of the council.
“We have provided the administration a list of 160 Sikh families who were converted to Christianity and are preparing more such lists. We had converted some families back to Sikhism, but now we need the help of the local administration to get the perpetrators arrested. We have formed several committees to put an end to this practice,” he said.
Jaggi claimed that some families were converted forcefully. “The missionaries also promote superstition among the poor and convert them to Christianity,” he said.
A police officer said: “We had registered an FIR against eight named and a dozen unidentified accused persons for organising sessions for religion conversion in several border villages, including Bamanpur, Tatarganj and Bailha. An investigation is on.”