The Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has charged and jailed its first Christians under a new anti-conversion law, International Christian Concern reports. A Korean Christian and three Indian nationals in the Gautam Buddh Nagar District of Uttar Pradesh were arrested under the new Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Ordinance on December 19, 2020.
A new report forecasts that Christians in India will be subject to increased persecution in 2021, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
A pastor in northeast India has been rescued after a gang of radical Hindus locked him in a room and left him to die because he was distributing Gospel tracts, Morning Star News reports. Pastor Shelton Vishwanathan was accosted by six men who knocked him unconscious and imprisoned him in a room in Bihar state’s Sheohar District on October 5.
Twenty-one Christians were taken to hospital after a large gang of tribal animists attacked a church hall and adjoining home in Chhattisgarh state, India last week, Morning Star News reports. The attackers accused the believers of influencing and converting people to Christianity. Several Christian families have gone into hiding since the attack.
A high court in India has ordered the district administration of Kondagaon to facilitate the safe return of Christians who were displaced from their villages by radical Hindu nationalists in Chhattisgarh state, Assist News reports. The order was issued by Bilaspur High Court on November 8.
Thousands of tribal animists invaded three villages in Chhattisgarh, India last week, driving Christians out their homes in violent assaults, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. The attacks took place on September 22-23 by agitators believed to have been incited by Hindu extremists.
An advocacy group reports “horrific attacks” against minority Christians in India at a time when critics claim the government is turning the country into a full-fledged Hindu nation.
Police in India’s eastern state of Odisha denied Wednesday that a Christian teenager was killed for his faith in Christ.
The 12th anniversary of one of India`s deadliest attacks against Christians is marked by concerns that thousands have not yet returned to their homes for fear of reprisals. Additionally, authorities are declining to investigate hundreds of cases, religious rights investigators told Worthy News.
The Chief Minister of India’s Haryana state has announced he proposes to add a Freedom of Religion Act that would criminalize forced conversions, Persecution.org reports. Commonly referred to as anti-conversion laws, such legislation has already been enacted in eight other Indian states. The announcement on June 16 by Manohar Lal Khattar has reportedly caused serious concerns to Haryana Christians: radical Hindus have used this law in other states to justify attacks on Christians and their places of worship.
Indian church leaders have condemned the killing of a young Protestant missionary and pastor by suspected Maoist rebels in western India.
New details emerged Thursday of a young Christian man who was reportedly murdered in eastern India for refusing to abandon his faith in Christ.
Christian villagers in rural northern India have reportedly fled their homes after an angry mob attacked their prayer house and threatened to kill or rape believers. Five suspects were briefly detained, but violence continued, rights activists told Worthy News.
Suspected Hindu nationalists hacked to death a Christian teenage boy in eastern India amid efforts to eradicate devoted Christians from the area, Worthy News learned Wednesday.
Hindu violence and threats against minority Christians spread in eastern India, a leading advocacy group says.
Three Christian families were hiding in India’s Chhattisgarh state on Sunday after they were attacked by Hindu nationalists while sleeping in their homes, rights investigators confirmed.
Sixteen Christian families from a church in India’s Jharkhand were physically threatened every night for nearly three weeks by gangs of animist worshippers demanding they reconvert to the Sarna religion, Morning Star News reported on May 26. The families (around 130 people) have ancestral connections to the religion, whose followers worship a god called Dharmes.
An American pastor has arrived home after more than seven months of detention in India on controversial charges of tax evasion.
Aid workers say Christians, including pastors and their families, are excluded from government food aid in several parts of India despite an ongoing lockdown to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
A pastor in India whose family’s house was demolished a month ago was assaulted on his way home from grocery shopping by the same people who forced him to flee his village.