Baseless Charge in India Leaves Pastor, Family in Ruins

Hindu nationalists weaponize ‘anti-conversion’ law against Christian.

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Not even a judge’s reprimand of police spared an impoverished pastor in India from being jailed on baseless claims of fraudulent conversion, one of the latest examples of how Hindu extremists misuse “anti-conversion” laws. Pastor Bajarang Rawat, a 47-year-old convert from Hinduism in Mohanlalganj, Lucknow District in Uttar Pradesh state, […]

Police in India Press Churches to Provide Information on Activities

Notices have chilling effect on worship gatherings.

HYDERABAD, India, (Morning Star News) – Police in India have issued questionnaires to at least 40 churches in Indore, Madhya Pradesh state seeking information that Christians fear will be used by Hindu extremists to attack them, sources said. The questionnaires are intrusive and discriminatory, as they were sent only to Christians, church leaders said. “We […]

Christian in India Charged with Human Trafficking, Allurement

Police beat, file baseless case against educator.

HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – Police in central India on July 26 beat a Christian educator and filed baseless charges against him of human trafficking and fraudulent conversion of eight Christian students he was escorting to a Bible institute, sources said. After arresting Liju Kuriakose off of a bus in Manikpur, Chhattisgarh state, police officers […]

Christian Family Traumatized by Ethnic Violence in India

Religious motives appear amid primarily tribal bases for attacks.

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – On the evening of May 3, an ethnic Christian in northern India’s Manipur state received a call from a relative advising her to pack up and leave home with her children immediately. Manngaihlun Tombing, of the Kuki ethnic minority in Churachandpur, did not take it seriously, she said. The worst […]

Religious Facet Seen in Ethnic Violence in Manipur, India

Christians likely targeted in inter-tribal attacks, sources say.

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – A surge of ethnic violence with a growing religious component in northeastern India led to the killing on Friday (June 9) of a woman in her church building and two other Christians, sources said. The attack by ethnic Meitei with automatic rifles in Manipur state’s Khoken village, on the boundary […]

Hindu Extremists Jail Pastors, Close Churches in India

Baseless charges leave leaders and their families in anguish.

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Having spent a month in jail on baseless charges before his release on bail, Pastor R. Kirubendran was baffled at hostilities from police, media and villagers after serving a community in northern India without problem for several years. An explanation likely lies in the pattern of false accusations by Hindu […]

Police Thwart Plan to Burn Church Buildings in India

One worship site torched.

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Plans to burn several church buildings in central India came to an end on Sunday (Feb. 12) after officers arrested three Hindu extremists, but not before they had set one structure ablaze, police said. Pastor Mahesh Kumre of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chaukipura village (under tribal-dominated Sukhtawa block), Madhya […]

Pastor in India Kept in Jail on Baseless Charges, Christians Say

Anti-conversion statutes again weaponized by Hindu extremists.

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – A pastor in northern India remains in jail after more than three months despite winning bail because Hindu extremists filed new false charges against him, his wife said. “We are going through troubled times, and we don’t know when this will come to an end,” said Preeti Masih, whose husband, […]

Sikh in India Leads Pastor into Knife Attack

Church leader works as taxi driver.

HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – A Christian pastor in northern India who drives a taxi for a living didn’t think he had anything to fear when a well-mannered Sikh asked him to take a slight detour. Pastor Sukhdev Mark, 47, had dropped him off the previous night at a hotel in Ambala, Haryana state after […]

Christian Family Suffers after Arrests at Birthday Party

Mother, others jailed after false allegations by Hindu extremists.

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – A Christian mother and her family in northern India have suffered assaults and threats since she and others were arrested from her son’s birthday party on false accusations of fraudulent conversion, her husband said. “Our lives have turned into a living hell as we struggle to survive each day with […]