CHINESE police have arrested dozens of Christian worshippers from a ‘house church’ for allegedly trying to pray outdoors.
According to a US-based rights group the Beijing police’s action showed their total disregard of their citizen’s constitutional rights.
The arrested worshippers sang hymns and prayed even as police forced them onto waiting buses in Haidian district, China Aid said in a statement.
“The Beijing authorities have again demonstrated their total disregard of their citizens’ constitutionally guaranteed fundamental right to religious freedom,” China Aid founder and president Bob Fu said in the statement.
The New York Times reported that one if its photographers was among those detained, but was later released.
While China Aid said more than 100 were detained, the newspaper said ‘dozens’ of people were held.
The church tried to hold services in the open air after it was evicted from a rented space as the landlord was pressured to not renew the lease, China Aid said.
Some of the detainees were taken to a nearby elementary school where authorities took down their names and other details, the statement said.
Several church leaders had been called to their local police stations on Saturday, with some spending the night in detention while other were told they were not permitted to leave their homes on Sunday, the statement said.
China only allows religious worship in state-approved churches.
Underground church members are routinely sent to labor camps where abuse and persecution is reported even as they languish in the camps without trial.
