False Accusations Seriously Disrupt Lives of Eight Acquitted Christians in India

Trauma, lost income; 17-year-old still awaiting trial.

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – False charges against eight Christians acquitted on Feb. 19 of kidnapping and forcible conversion in central India have traumatized families and cost them jobs, sources said. Schoolteacher Amiya Jal, one of the Christians arrested on May 22, 2017 for allegedly abducting and forcefully converting 59 children, was suspended from […]

Christians Suffer Two Months of Abuse in Jail on Baseless Charges in India

Police find no evidence for accusations but yield to Hindu extremist pressure.

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Three Christians in northern India spent more than two months in jail suffering abuse from other prisoners, even though police found no evidence of wrongdoing and the complainant retracted his accusation, sources said. In Uttar Pradesh state’s Mau District, 23-year-old pastor Ajay Kumar, fellow pastor Om Prakash, 20, and […]

Church Decimated after Upper-Caste Hindus Stir Hostilities in Andhra Pradesh, India

Christians too fearful to show up after attacks.

HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – Attacks and harassment of a house church in southern India have decimated the 40-member congregation and left the pastor injured and demoralized. Pastor Eswara Rao Appalabattula on Jan. 27 pleaded with about a dozen local residents to stop building a wall meant to block people from attending worship services […]

Hindu Extremists in Southern India Beat Christian Children, Accuse Worshippers

Assailants threaten to kill Christians.

HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – Hindu extremists in southern India who beat Christian children during worship on Jan. 19 and then filed a police complaint against the congregation left them with a warning. “If we hear that you stepped out of your homes and told anybody about this, we will set your homes on […]

Severe Attack in Northern India Devastates Families, Church

Pastor, house-church homeowner lose their means of earning a living.

HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – Before Pastor Jai Singh appeared before a judge in northern India and was jailed on false charges of luring people to convert, Hindu extremists had dragged him from house worship to a school where groups of six beat him in turns, he said. “From the school, they took me […]

Police in Uttar Pradesh, India, Most Harsh on Christians, Sources Say

Officers frequently bow to pressure from Hindu extremists.

HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – Police in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state work in tandem with Hindu extremists to treat Christians and other religious minorities especially harshly, sources said. “The UP police force is very different from the rest of India,” Dinanath Jaiswar, a volunteer with legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom-India, told Morning […]

Christians in India Spend Christmas in Jail, Accused of Illegally Practicing Medicine

Law on unregistered medical practice invoked for healing prayer.

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Christians arrested in central India after Hindu nationalist, tribal villagers disrupted their worship service spent Christmas in jail before they were released on bail after 11 days – accused of illegally practicing medicine. Pastor Mukam Kiraad, 35, along with two members of his church, 40-year-old Lalsingh Tomar and 38-year-old […]

Axe-Wielding, Tribal Animists Set Bibles, Church Building Ablaze in Eastern India

Pastor and wife taken hostage for more than four hours.

HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – Tribal animists in eastern India earlier this month surrounded a church building with axes, threatened to kill Christians within and later burned down the thatched-roof structure, sources said. Hard-line animists in Odisha state’s Perigaon village, Rayagada District, attacked on Dec. 1 after having raided Christians homes to seize and […]

Animists Opposing Christianity in India Find Allies in Maoists, Police, Hindu Extremists

Christians in tribal areas face persecution on many fronts.

HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – In an area of central India where tribal animists enlist Maoist militants to kill Christians who refuse to recant, Sodi Joga took it seriously when relatives threatened to kill him, his wife and 5-year-old daughter. “The villagers demanded that Joga and his family must partake in the cleansing ritual, […]

Fear of Hindu Extremist Violence Ends Christianity in Village in Northern India

Boy, 10, not spared in assault in Uttarakhand state.

NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – The gruesome beating of a pastor’s family in northern India last month showed why a woman who was once Christian returned to Hinduism – and joined the mob attacking them. “I was among the crowd abusing and accusing the Christian family,” the 30-year-old mother, whose name is withheld for security […]