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Church in Northern India Comes Under Attack

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – As Christians and their chuches in India continue to be harassed and assaulted by radical Hindu nationalists, a church in Rohtak in Haryana state came under attack on December 9, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.

India now ranks 10 on the US Open Doors Watch List 2021 of top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

Christians across India have been dealing with intensifying persecution since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party came to power in 2014. Eight Indian states have already passed harsh anti-conversion laws that are used to falsely claiming believers of forcing Hindus to convert to Chrisitanity, ICC reports.

Local Bharatiya Janata Party politicians in Haryana have been pushing for anti-conversion laws in their state as well.

The church in Rohtak was established some six years ago and holds services on Sundays and Thursdays, ICC said. Refuting Hindu claims that Christians are forcing people to convert, the associate leader of the church told ICC: “People come here out of devotion, just like any other place of worship. We never forced anyone to come here.”

The consequences of the planned December 9 assault on the Rohtak church would have been much greater had police not been tipped off and arrived to disperse the mob of attackers.

“There was a gathering for which no permission had been obtained,” Captain Manoj Kumar, the Deputy Commissioner of Rohtak, told media. “So, it was disbursed, and the situation is normal now.”

Documenting the growing threat against Christians in India, ICC said in its report: “False claims of forced religious conversions are used by radical Hindu nationalists to harass Christians and justify attacks on their places of worship. In most cases, local authorities work hand in glove with the radicals, allowing accusations of forced conversion to justify street violence.”