Hindu extremists in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh have raised the incidence of attacks on believers to an unprecedented high, including a slander campaign against the state’s chief minister, Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, a Christian.
Following the March 29 sentencing of Father Nguyen Van Ly to eight years in prison for distributing “material harmful to the state,†two Protestant lawyers charged with the same “crime†are expected to face equally harsh sentences in what Human Rights Watch has called the harshest crackdown in 20 years.
Although elections in Madhya Pradesh are more than 18 months away, two Christian leaders there link the state’s ruling Hindu nationalist party to rising persecution ahead of the upcoming vote.
Tensions remained high Monday, March 26, in a Christian area of the Indian state of Orissa after Hindu militants threatened to set homes of Christians on fire while elsewhere in India evangelists and missionaries were attacked.
Hindu extremists have extended to the northern state of Himachal Pradesh a movement to bring Christian converts back to the Hindu fold through dubious “reconversion†events.
With the governor of Himachal Pradesh approving an “anti-conversion†bill last week, India now has seven states with legislation banning unregistered or unethical religious conversions — to the glee of Hindu extremists who arbitrarily invoke them to quash Christian growth.
The body of a 29-year-old pastor was found with stab wounds on February 20 in a canal in Krishna district of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.
During my many years as a reporter, I have been involved in some incredible situations and one of them took place in Chiapas, Mexico, back in March of 1998.
Multiple attacks and arrests in recent weeks demonstrate ongoing hostility towards Christians in India. Police have cooperated with Hindu extremists, in some cases claiming “tremendous pressure” to charge Christian ministers with forced conversion.
The Congress Party-led government of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh has decided to enact a law banning preaching of any religion other than Hinduism in Tirupati, a “temple town” in large measure under the administration of its shrines.
A group of about 15 Hindu extremists in the southern state of Karnataka on August 4 entered a jail and attacked a Christian businessman accused of compelling his wife to commit suicide.
There was concern Saturday, July 29 over the situation of the Christian minority in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh amid fears the government’s decision to strengthen controversial anti-conversion legislation will further encourage violence against Christians.
The parliament of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh passed a controversial bill Tuesday, July 25, to prevent ‘religious conversions by force or allurement,’ a move critics claim is aimed at the Christian minority and preachers.
Six Evangelical Christians of Vietnam’s Montagnard Degar minority were facing another tense day Wednesday, June 28, after a court reportedly jailed them on charges of inciting religious unrest and organizing illegal border crossings to neighboring Cambodia.
Human rights officials in Europe and the United States expressed concern Wednesday, May 3, over the persecution of Christians in the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, nearly a year after hundreds of people died when security forces opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators.
Nigerian Christians on Sunday, February 19, mourned those killed in violent protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, which claimed at least 16 lives.
The government of India’s largest northwestern state, Rajasthan, has withdrawn criminal procedures against most militants of an influential Hindu nationalist organization involved in the massive distribution of ‘tridents’, three-sponged spears that have reportedly been used to intimidate the Christian minority, BosNewsLife learned Monday, January 23.
At this time last year, Noor Jehan Ahmed, 55, lived peacefully in the village of Nagaon, in the northeastern state of Assam. She and her extended household of 29 people formed their own Christian enclave within the majority-Muslim community.
Hindu extremists attacked Christians in two incidents in the same district of Andhra Pradesh state on January 12 and 13, in one case dragging a pastor from a child’s birthday party and kicking him unconscious.
About 30 Hindu extremists attacked a pastor, his wife and their driver in the western state of Gujarat on October 23. The three sustained internal injuries.