(Update: On June 5, pastor Ramnivas Kumar died of COVID-19. The original story of May 26 follows.) NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – A pastor in eastern India contracted COVID-19 while seeking treatment at hospitals where personnel were reluctant to admit him for injuries sustained in a Hindu extremist assault last month, sources said. Pastor Ramnivas […]
Pastor Contracts COVID-19 after Assault in Eastern India
Wife knocked unconscious, uncle injured – and criminally charged.
May 26, 2021 By - Leave a Comment
Police Rescue – then Jail – Christian Family Attacked in India
Authorities again succumb to pressure by Hindu extremists.
May 4, 2021 By - Leave a Comment
NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Police in India who initially took a pastor and his family into custody to protect them from an attack by a 300-member Hindu extremist mob were pressured into jailing them under a baseless charge of forcible conversion, sources said. Pastor Manu Damor, 35, remains in Depalpur jail a month after […]
Christian Pastor Paraded, Injured, Forced into Hindu Ritual
Church leader in southwest India loses hearing in one ear.
April 20, 2021 By - 1 Comment
NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Pastor Sanjay Bhandari had taken his wife for a medical check-up earlier this month when they decided to visit her sister in the same area in Karnataka state, southwest India – only to be attacked as they were drinking tea. “While we were still having tea, a few men barged […]
Christians Confined to Home by Police, Tribal Threats in India
Young children among family members beaten.
April 15, 2021 By - Leave a Comment
HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – A Christian family in eastern India has been confined to their home for months amid police threats to jail them for “breach of peace” after tribal mob assaults for leaving their native religion, sources said. The mob of tribal followers of native religion gathered police and news media to accompany […]
Christians Forced to ‘Re-Convert’ to Tribal Religion in Central India
Four families assaulted and cut off from water, fields.
April 1, 2021 By - 1 Comment
NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – When followers of tribal deities in central India threatened to kill 10 Christian families if they refused to participate in a “re-conversion” ceremony back to their ancestral religion last month, all but 10 Christians fled the village. “The village gathering threatened to beat us to death if we did not […]
Christians Seriously Injured in Mob Assault on House Church
Attack in central India leaves five people hospitalized.
March 23, 2021 By - Leave a Comment
NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – A mob armed with axes and thick wooden batons in central India disrupted a home worship service and beat and threatened Christians for leaving their ancestral tribal religion this month, sources said. Eight Christians were injured and five of them hospitalized, including two women and a pastor who suffered head […]
Christian Mother of Three Beaten, Driven from Home in India
Officer says she should have been killed for leaving tribal religion.
March 17, 2021 By - Leave a Comment
HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – Homeless since relatives attacked her for failing to respect their tribal rituals last month, a Christian mother of three young children in eastern India sought help from police. The next morning, Feb. 10, an officer from Lesliganj police station in Jharkhand state’s Palamu District came to her village and accused […]
Christian Mother Expelled from Village, Threatened with Death
Tribal woman kept from harvesting annual food supply.
March 9, 2021 By - Leave a Comment
HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – When villagers kept her from harvesting her fields because she had invited a Christian pastor to pray for the harvest, a tribal Adivasi mother in central India went to police thinking officers might help her. Instead, the police inspector at the Polampalli police station in Chhattisgarh state showed Kanni Barse […]
Police in India Allow Attack on Churches, then Arrest Christians
Pastor charged under new ‘anti-conversion’ ordinance in Madhya Pradesh.
March 3, 2021 By - 1 Comment
NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – Armed Hindu extremists in Madhya Pradesh, India disrupted worship services at two churches on Feb. 7, beat congregation members and pressured police to arrest more than 20 Christians on suspicion of forcible conversion, sources said. Under a new anti-conversion ordinance that came into effect in the state on Jan. 9, […]
Pastor in India Beaten for Refusing to Help Pay for Tribal Rituals
Police’s solution: hand over money and don’t press charges.
February 28, 2021 By - Leave a Comment
HYDERABAD, India (Morning Star News) – Local officials and other tribal animists in a village in eastern India locked council doors, tied up pastor Lakshman Oraon and beat him for more than an hour, but he kept praising God, he said. “I did not shout or cry before them,” Pastor Oraon told Morning Star News. “I […]