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.
Protestant pastor Dmitry Shestakov has appealed against the four-year sentence to one of Uzbekistan’s open labor camps which was imposed by authorities in retaliation for his Christian work, investigators and local Christians close to the case said Friday, March 23.
A Gospel for Asia missionary working in Assam, India, was badly beaten on March 21 during what appears to be a robbery attempt. GFA missionary Bansi Samoun, along with staff members from a GFA Bridge of Hope center and their driver, had traveled to a neighboring village with plans to distribute school supply bags to children when the incident occurred. Upon their arrival in the village, a group of known militants approached them, demanding the key to their vehicle.
A 34-year-old pastor was shot dead while he was praying with others in his church on Wednesday, March 21 at the St. Mary’s Village of Gomaz Trace in Moruga, the southern sea town in Trinidad.
Christians in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday, March 14, were preparing to rebuild their church, hours after it was burnt down by Hindu militants, while elsewhere in the country several Christian leaders were recovering from injuries following violent attacks against them.
An Uzbek criminal court has sentenced Christian pastor Dmitry Shestakov to four years in a prison colony for alleged “illegal†religious activities.
There was mounting concern Tuesday, March 13, about the whereabouts of an evangelical Sri Lankan pastor, his two sons, and another Christian young man who disappeared this month amid intense fighting between Sri Lanka’s government forces and the independence seeking Tamil Tiger rebels, Christians said.
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.
Prominent Protestant pastor Dmitry Shestakov was sentenced Friday, March 9, to four years’ exile within Uzbekistan for his evangelistic activities, Christian rights watchers observing the trial said.
One of the top Islamic leaders in Iran accepted Christ and left the country after facing death threats and imprisonment, according to an Iranian pastor living in the U.S.
Islamic militants in Benin destroyed a church established by Christ Power Ministries (CPM) in the latest attack against the indigenous evangelical mission group in the African nation, missionaries told BosNewsLife Friday, March 2.
“Many Christians” were injured when hundreds of suspected Hindu militants on Wednesday, February 28, raided a Christian college in the Indian state of Orissa and beat staff members and students, investigators told BosNewsLife.
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.
An Eritrean Christian died in prison last week, four and a half years after the Eritrean regime jailed him for worshipping in a banned Protestant church.
Five young men studying at a Bible college run by mission group Gospel for Asia (GFA) in the Indian state of Maharashtra were reportedly recovering from “severe injuries” Tuesday, February 20, after they were beaten by an angry anti-Christian crowd.
Just days after Eritrean security police arrested one of the founders of the Full Gospel Church last month, two Protestant pastors and another church leader jailed months ago have been released on bail without explanation.
Uzbekista’s religious authorities admitted publicly for the first time this week that an Uzbek Christian pastor was arrested last month in the eastern city of Andijan and now faces criminal charges.
A major Christian rights group expressed concern Wednesday, February 7, about Uzbekistan’s “harshening crackdown on religious freedom.”
An evangelical pastor remained behind bars in Uzbekistan Monday, February 5, more than two weeks after he was detained by secret police on charges of “incitement to hatred on national, racial or religious grounds.”