A band of Hindu extremists who had snuck into a house-church service beat a pastor with steel rods and sticks, one of them yelling that they would stop if he shouted, ‘Hail, Lord Ram [Jai Sri Ram]!’
As reported earlier this year, the first quarter of 2017 saw 248 persecution incidents wherein Christians were harassed, threatened or attacked for their faith in India. More recent records indicate the number of incidents in first six months of 2017 is now up to 410 incidents. This represents an enormous increase in persecution as there were only 441 incidents reported in 2016 for the entire year.
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that the Jharkhand Assembly, a state legislative body in northeastern India, passed the Jharkhand Freedom of Religion Bill-2017, also known as ‘Jharkhand Dharma Swatantra Adhiniyam,’ on Saturday, August 12. The bill will now be sent to the governor, following whose approval it would go to the president for final assent. The bill was passed by the BJP-led government despite significant opposition from religious groups, civil society, and the tribal groups across Jharkhand.
Hard-line Hindus used steel rods and a butcher’s knife to attack a father-son pastoral team in Tamil Nadu state, India, injuring the elder clergyman, sources said.
Berating and slapping a pastor for reading the Bible instead of Hindu texts, police in Uttar Pradesh state, India last month detained six Christians under “unlawful assembly” laws for worshiping together, sources said.
A pastor in northern India’s Punjab state was shot dead in front of his church premises two months after Hindu extremists took offense at a gospel event celebrating his church’s 25th anniversary, sources said.
Last month in Punjab state, India, a Christian was severely beaten after he protested the desecration of a Christian graveyard by local Hindus.
A Christian villager was tortured for his faith last month in Chhattisgarh state.
The arrest of a pastor, his wife and another church member in Satna, India, on May 22 symbolically fell on the two-year anniversary of Narendra Modi’s oppressive Hindu nationalist government.
Police arrested a Christian in Chhattisgarh, India, for distributing brochures printed with excerpts from the Gospel.
After concluding that their Hindu deities were angry, villagers in Chhattisgarh state drove some newly converted Christians from their homes and then set the buildings afire.
Police declined to take any action against the Hindus who tortured a Christian in India’s Uttar Pradesh state last month and then left him for dead.
Despite having received a letter last month from the U.S. Congress requesting that India’s prime minister condemn the sectarian attacks on his nation’s religious minorities, PM Narendra Modi remains unmoved.
A church in India’s Chhattisgarh state was attacked by Hindu nationalists during the March 6 Sunday service.
A bipartisan congressional letter was sent last week to Prime Minister Modi requesting that he strongly condemn the persecution of India’s religious minorities and to uphold the rule of law.
A mob of Hindu nationalists assaulted a Christian prayer gathering in Nagepur village in Telangana State on Jan. 17, resulting in the hospitalization of six Christians.
More than 15 Hindus surrounded a handful of Christians from the Rehoboth Prayer House as they handed out Bibles in Hyderabad, India, during Christmas week.
Forty Christians were severely beaten by Hindu nationals in India’s Telangana state last month after holding a prayer meeting in a private home.
A pastor in India’s Madhya Pradesh state is recovering after Hindus beat him unconscious last month.
Christians in India’s Chhattisgarh state have been assaulted by Hindus after a local resolution banning all non-Hindu religious activities in their village was passed.