In one of the eight attacks on Christians since the COVID-19 lockdown was partially lifted in India two weeks ago, a mob of about 150 people in the southern state of Telangana dragged a pastor into the street and beat him while he was praying for a sick person. “They kicked me like they would kick a football,” Pastor Suresh Rao, a church planter, told the U.S.-based Christian persecution watchdog International Christian Concern about the attack on him in Kolonguda village last Sunday. “They dragged me into the street and pushed me to the ground,” Rao added. “There, they started to trample on me. They tore my clothes, kicked me all over my body, and punched my left eye. I have sustained a serious eye injury as a result of a blood clot.” Local Christians told ICC that Rao arrived at the sick person’s house around 9:30 a.m. for prayer. Soon after that, the house was surrounded by a mob of nearly 150 people led by a man identified as Ashok. The attackers accused Rao of illegally converting Hindus to Christianity. “They said that India is a Hindu nation, and there is no place for Christians,” Rao explained. “I am prepared for this kind of eventuality.

Catholic bishops in India on June 28 joined civil rights groups, activists and political leaders to decry the deaths of a father and his son in police custody in Tamil Nadu, southern India. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India “condemns most strongly the brutal assaults on P Jayaraj and his son J Fenix while in police custody in Tuticorin, which resulted in their deaths,” says a press statement signed by conference president Cardinal Oswald Gracias. Tuticorin is some 600 km south of Chennai, the state capital. The bishops’ statement quoted media reports that said the police had picked up the father and son on June 19 for keeping their mobile accessories shop open during the lockdown. While Fenix son died on the evening of June 22 at a hospital in Kovilpatti, Tuticorin, and his father died the following day. Their killings are dubbed as the Indian version of the George Floyd incident. A white policeman in Minneapolis, Minnesota of the United States on May 25 kept his knees on the neck of Floyd, a colored man, until he died. The death triggered unprecedented protests all over the states and the world. The CBCI press release noted that when the father-son duo of India’s Tuticorin was released

Official from Hindu nationalist party pressures officers, sources say. Under pressure from an official in the ruling Hindu nationalist political party, police in Uttar Pradesh state, India have released without charges a suspect in the attempted killing of a pastor last month, sources said. “When we entered the police station for the identification process, the attacker was treated like a VIP, not as a criminal,” Deepak Kumar, brother-in-law of the pastor, told Morning Star News. “He was released the same day, even after we insisted that he is the one.” Four men ambushed 39-year-old pastor Dinesh Kumar as he left Mohiuddinpur village, Mau District on his motorbike on May 28, beating him with clubs so severely that he lost consciousness. A deep wound to his head required 16 stitches, a cut on his arm seven stitches, and he sustained internal injuries; seeing the wound on his arm, a doctor asked his wife if he had been shot. “They had no intentions to threaten me – they attacked to kill me,” Pastor Kumar, of Jamalpur village, told Morning Star News. Police went to Pastor Kumar while he was still in the Intensive Care Unit of Prakash Hospital in Mau to ask if he knew the names of any

A mob damaged the building still under construction and destroyed a cross. Police cordoned off the area and arrested the two Christian teachers. Sajan K George: "False accusations, intimidation of Christians for political reasons". Belagadia (AsiaNews) - A Pentecostal church was vandalized by Hindu radicals after two Christian teachers were accused of proselytizing. The incident occurred on June 22 in the Dhanbad (Jharkhand) district. The mob damaged the building which is still under construction and destroyed a cross. The police cordoned off the area, blocking public access to it. The church is being built on land that has been leased for 30 years, and has a congregation of 16 families mainly from Belagadia. Kaina Pansal and Sushant Pradhan teach in the premises and anti-Christian militants along with local politicians accuse them of having converted some local families. Police arrested and interrogated the two Christian teachers on charges of forced conversion, and the district administration sent a report to the government. Religious proselytism is banned by law in Jharkhand; those found guilty can be sentenced up to three years in prison and 50 thousand rupees (588 euros) in fines. In the East Indian state, if someone wants to convert to another religion, they must first seek

A fund set up by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fight Covid-19 is now mired in controversy and concern over an alleged lack of transparency, writes the BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi. On 27 March, just days after India began a country-wide lockdown to halt the spread of the coronavirus, Narendra Modi set up the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund. The PM Cares Fund, for short. A day later, Mr Modi appealed to "all Indians" to donate. "It is my appeal to my fellow Indians, kindly contribute to the PM-Cares Fund," he tweeted, telling the nation that their donations would strengthen India's fight against Covid-19 and "similar distressing situations" in future. "This will go a long way in creating a healthier India," he wrote. Donations poured in - from industrialists, celebrities, companies and the common man. Within a week, reports said, donations had reached 65bn rupees ($858m; £689m). The fund is now believed to have exceeded 100bn rupees. But PM Cares has been controversial from the start. Many questioned the need for a new fund when a similar one - PM National Relief Fund or PMNRF - has existed in the country since 1948. image captionIndia has reported more than half a million coronavirus

Angry relatives in Uttar Pradesh bang the door of a Christian family late at night and threaten to murder them if they did not renounce their faith in Christ. On June 18, at around 11 p.m., a 12-year-old boy heard his uncle and five other drunken men pounding at his house door in Ram Ganga Vihar area of Moradabad threatening to kill him and his 20-year-old brother. Molly James, 42, the terrified mother who was with the two boys when the angry assailants were at the door, asked the older son to run to the police station and seek help. According to Molly, her brother and sister have been portraying her as a bad woman in the Hindu-dominant neighborhood for accepting Christianity. They have been trying to expel her family from the area for the past three years. The incident occurred when Anil James, the father of the two sons, was away from home, in Delhi, due to COVID-19 lockdown, unable to return home as often as he did before. The assailants saw this as an excellent opportunity to harass the Christian family. "He is working hard to provide for our family, and he would not be granted a leave often to visit us. Before

Tribal Adivasis opposed his conversion, raped his mother-in-law. When Kande Munda heard a knock on his door one night last month, the Christian father of two knew it was likely the same thugs and their colleagues in his area of Jharkhand, India who had harassed him for nearly four years. They were particularly upset that Munda had reported them to police for a 2018 assault on his mother-in-law. The assailants, followers of tribal Adivasi religion, had opposed her conversion to Christianity by labelling her Christian prayers as “witchcraft” and gang-raping her. Munda and his family were already in bed after a hard day of work on the night of June 7 when they heard the knock on the door. Munda told his wife not to answer it. “He was suspicious that they must have come for him,” his wife, Bindi Munda, told Morning Star News. Three men forced the door open and entered, while four or five remained outside, she said. Darkness obscured their faces. “One of them pointed a gun at my husband and told the other two men that they should first rape me and then kill my husband,” Munda said. Their children, ages 1 and 3, were asleep. The armed assailants seized her husband

If homicide, it would be the third killing of a Christian in the country within a few weeks. Tribal Hindus persecuted a widowed, Christian mother of four before her body was found severely mutilated in the wilderness near her village in Chhattisgarh, India, sources said. The body of 40-year-old Bajjo Bai Mandavi was initially unrecognizable as it appeared to have been eaten by wild animals when it was found two miles into the wilderness near her native Kumud village, Kuye Mari, on May 29. She was last seen going into the wilderness of Kondagaon District to collect firewood on May 25. The death threats, deprivation of water and shunning she had suffered at the hands of villagers who were upset that she left their blend of Hindu and traditional tribal rituals led family members and area Christian leaders to believe she was raped and killed before animals fed on her body, they said. “There was no way to find out who the people were who raped my sister-in-law and then murdered her, so police and the authorities thought best to call it an attack by a wild animal,” a sobbing Bhajnath Mandavi, her brother-in-law, told Morning Star News. Bhajnath Mandavi is the younger brother of

A mob ransacked a young clergyman’s home. They threatened his family and two other Christian families that if they did not leave the village, their women would be raped, the men murdered, and their homes burnt. Police was forced to release two detainees. Hinduvta radicals attacked and mocked Rev Vikas Gupta (pictured right) in a remote village in Azamgarh district, Uttar Pradesh on 2 July, said Sajan K George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). “Vikas Gupta, a 21-year-old man, was dragged inside a Hindu temple where he was forced to bow in front of an idol,” George told AsiaNews. After that, “he was paraded through the village market”. His attackers “also damaged his motorbike.” The following day another mob broke into his home in Dassmora, a village in Azamgarh district. They ransacked the house, and threatened his family and two other Christian families that if they did not leave the village, the women would be raped, the men murdered, and their homes set on fire. After the mob left, the families asked police for help. On 4 July, the mob attacked the house of prayer, tearing down walls, breaking windows and doors. Following the third attack, Christians informed the Bardah police