KARNATAKA, INDIA (ANS) -- Two pastors were tortured and arrested by Hindu radicals. The incident occurred on Aug. 11 in Davangere, Karnataka State, India.

According to a story on www.persecution.in, Pastors Rajendra Gowda and Kumaran were praying in a village called Emmanabettur, and more than 20 Hindu radicals from the Shivasainya (Army of Shiva) Youth Association burst into the meeting and attacked the pastors.

It was reported in the story that the radicals stripped the pastors, tied them to a car and drove them half naked from Emmanabettur village to the Anagi Police Outpost. That is a distance of about seven kilometers.

The report said the pastors were then later taken in the same car to Davangere Rural Polic Station. That is about another 20 kilometers from Anagi Outpost. There the pastors were viciously assaulted.

Then the Hindu radicals filed a complaint with the police against the pastors, alleging they were engaging in forced conversion activities. As a result, the police arrested the pastors.

The website reported after appearing before a magistrate later that evening, the pastors were freed the next day.

The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), a Christian advocacy group, is concerned about the increasing violence against pastors and evangelists in the Karnataka

More specifically, GCIC said, there have been 42 incidences of torture and violence against Christian workers and pastors so far in 2008.