Jalandhar: A grand Christmas procession was held.

Jalandhar: A grand procession was taken out in the city on Friday by the Church of Signs and Wonders, Khambra, on the occasion of Christmas celebrations. Thousands of devotees joined the procession from Nakodar Road around noon and proceeded towards Company Bagh, the final destination where Apostle Ankur Yusuf Narula, along with his wife Pastor Sonia Yusuf Narula, alighted from their decorated luxury car. He addressed the devotees and extended Christmas greetings. Leaders from all political parties, including Minister Mohinder Bhagat and AAP constituency in-charge Rajwinder Thiara, were part of the event. The tableau included beautifully decorated chariots, people riding horses and camels, and tractors depicting the nativity scene. A vehicle carrying the Holy Bible was also part of the procession.
Youngsters dressed as Santa Claus, Mother Mary, and Jesus, holding holy crosses in their hands, sang carols in Punjabi throughout the route. Devotees performed Bhangra and Gidda and enjoyed food from more than 100 stalls set up along the way. At the start of the procession, Apostle Ankur Narula spoke to the media and outrightly rejected the allegations of monetary transactions for religious conversions. “Lakhs of people are coming to the church in this area. If I were taking money from them, at least one of them would have come forward and said so. These are baseless allegations. I am not here to convert people’s religion, but to change their lives,” he said. On the controversy surrounding his statement that the accused in the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl should be shown mercy, Apostle Narula clarified, “I was not talking about mercy in the legal process. He might be hanged. I was only talking about him being shown mercy by Lord Jesus. If he repents for his sins, He might grant him a place in heaven, otherwise, he will go to hell. I also used to do wrong things earlier, but Jesus brought a change in me. I was only talking about spiritual healing and justice.”