by Ruth Kramer
Mission Network News
At the heart of the issue, the constituent assembly drafted a new constitution and rejected a proposal to revert to a Hindu state, declaring that Nepal was a secular state. That announcement was met with outrage and violence from Hindu nationalists. Nettleton recounts the most obvious signs of ire. “Two churches were bombed. Thankfully, the bombs exploded late at night. Nobody was there. Nobody got hurt. [In] the third church, a bomb was planted, but it didn’t explode.” Both churches suffered structural damage. Regarding the third bomb, however, “The police came and took it to the police station, and unfortunately, it exploded in the police station. A policeman was badly injured in that...”
...Nettleton confirms there have been arrests made in connection with the bombings in Nepal’s Jhapa district. However, “Did they get the right people? How seriously are they going to pursue this, taking them to trial and making sure that justice is done?”
What’s more, the attackers left anti-Christian pamphlets at each site. The flyers said that all Christian leaders must reconvert to Hinduism and that the Christianization of Nepal is happening with the support of foreign nations. “We have also seen photos circulating around Nepal of Bibles being burned at the sites of the church bombings,” says Nettleton. “There were radical Hindu leaflets left basically saying, ‘Nepal is a Hindu nation. If you’re not a Hindu, you’re not welcome here...’”