Christian Persecution – Asia

A US-based Vietnamese woman end two of her friends were approaching their 8th month in captivity Saturday, June 17, after being arrested by Vietnamese security forces for demanding freedom in Vietnam during discussions in an influential Internet forum promoting religious and political rights, fellow activists and family told BosNewsLife.

Two jailed Christian government workers were struggling Friday, June 16, to avoid serving years of imprisonment for showing the internationally acclaimed ‘Jesus’ film in a Buddhist home, BosNewsLife learned.

Hindu extremists on Sunday (June 11) dragged an independent pastor to a police station in Karnataka state, accusing him of converting Hindus to Christianity.

The body of Prem Kumar, a 67-year-old preacher from the Church of South India, has been found in a forest in Nizamabad district of Andhra Pradesh state, a Christian news agency reported Monday June 12.

Police raided a home in Jabalpur city, Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday (June 6) and arrested the Christians there after officers and Hindu extremists pressured a neighbor to file a charge.

A leading Christian human rights watchdog expressed concern Friday, June 9, over the whereabouts of 10 North Koreans and two Christian South Korean aid workers who were detained in Laos as they tried to find a “safe haven in a Southeast Asian country.”

Three small children in Vietnam’s Central Highlands were without caring adults Saturday, June 10, nearly three weeks after their mother and mother-in-law were arrested for refusing to join the official church which they claim worships a Communist leader instead of Jesus Christ, friends said.

Christians in India’s volatile state of Andhra Pradesh were anticipating more attacks against them Sunday, June 11, amid reports of sectarian violence in which at least 13 people died, a police raid and threats in a village where women were allegedly raped for refusing to abandon their faith in Christ.

An evangelical pastor in India’s troubled state of Madhya Pradesh who was arrested while leading a house prayer meeting this weekend was reportedly free Wednesday, June 7, after a court released him on bail.

Burma’s military continued its “biggest offensive” in nearly a decade against the, predominantly Christian, Karen community and eyewitnesses reported killings, burning of villages and the capture of civilians, including children, investigators confirmed Tuesday, June 6.

With the encouragement of a local chief and the apparent backing of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, villagers in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh on Sunday (May 28) gang-raped two Christian women after the husband of one refused to deny Christ.

Christian rights activists on Thursday, June 1, welcomed a decision by United Nations human rights officials to pressure North Korea to suspend the scheduled execution of Son Jong Nam, a detained Christian who criticized living conditions in his Communist-run nation.

The administration of Rajasthan state’s Kota district has leveled fresh charges of “exciting . . . disaffection towards the government of India” against a major evangelical mission organization, a move that could lead to the re-arrest of its leaders, news reports said Thursday, June 1.

A Pakistani Christian reportedly spent his first full day in freedom Wednesday, May 31, after more than seven years of imprisonment for allegedly burning the Koran, a crime he says he never committed.

Several indigenous Degar Montagnard Christians in Vietnam’s Central Highlands recovered from their injuries Sunday, May 28, after they were detained and tortured by Vietnamese security forces for refusing to abandon their Christian faith and follow the ‘official’ Communist-backed church, their friends said.

Vietnam’s well-known Mennonite Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, whose church and adjacent home in Ho Chi Minh City was raided by security forces, said Saturday, May 27, he was “badly beaten” at his thighs and stomach and warned his congregation will sue the Communist government.