October 3, 2021: Over 200 unidentified men and women, allegedly belonging to local right-wing groups, vandalized a church in Roorkee on Sunday, October 3, injuring several people who had assembled for morning prayers. According to the FIR registered by Prio Sadhana Lanse, the church pastor’s wife, over 200 men and women belonging to the local Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party’s youth wing, barged into the church and started vandalising it, while beating the churchgoers. At around 10 am, the mob, armed with iron roads, destroyed chairs, tables, musical instruments and photographs that were in the church. Speaking to The Wire over the phone, Lanse said that the attackers went on a rampage and smashed everything that came in their way. “The frenzied mob, shouting slogans like ‘Vande mataram’ and ‘Bharat mata ki jai’, barged into the church, which is on the first floor of the building,” Lanse said. “They started beating our volunteers and the women attackers bashed up our womenfolk.” The vandalism went on for over 40 minutes and Rajat, a church volunteer, suffered serious head injuries. He has been shifted to a Dehradun government hospital where his condition is stated to be critical. Lanse also alleged that the women

Hindu activists disrupt the ceremony after claiming the Hindu bride was converted to ChristianityPolice have launched an investigation into the marriage of a Protestant couple after Hindu activists claimed the bride was a Hindu converted to Christianity in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Hindu extremists barged into the marriage reception in Indore town on Sept. 29 evening and disrupted the function. Even though the families of both bride and groom denied the allegations, the ruckus led to the police being summoned.“The couple and their family members were taken to the police station. The allegations of the Hindu activists were found to be false and they were let off,” Pastor Patras Savil, who is based in Indore, told UCA News on Sept. 30. “The newly wedded couple are Christians and their marriage reception was disturbed based on a false allegation of religious conversion.” No one from either family spoke to the media about the incident, apparently out of shock and fear. Police have started a probe into the marriage based on a complaint from an office bearer of Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajarang Dal, right-wing Hindu organizations opposed to Christians and their charitable work. “It is very sad that Christians are simply targeted for their

Police arrested Rev Charlie John on charges of forced conversion aggravated by monetary inducement. For the president of the Global Council of Indian Christians, the “persecution of minority Christians must stop.” New Delhi (AsiaNews) – Last Tuesday evening, police in Rampur, a city of Himachal Pradesh (northern India), arrested a Pentecostal clergyman, Rev Charlie John, on charges of forced conversion using money to induce people to convert. The pastor was reportedly handing out Gospel booklets and Bibles in the village of Lalas when a group of extremists went up to him, ordering him to stop. In addition to Rev John, two brothers, Vishal and Keval Ram were also arrested on charges of forced conversion. When questioned, they rejected the accusations, reiterating their innocence. “I only offered the Bible, and I gave it to those who freely accept the Good News,” Rev John said. “If anyone refused, I didn't insist. We did not convert anyone; I'm even willing to offer the Bible, which is God's Word, even to the police. “What we do is share the Good News with people, tell them about Jesus, without forcing anyone to convert. The accusations made against me are totally false; I have never offered money for the conversion of

Officer manhandled in attack in Chhattisgarh state. NEW DELHI (Morning Star News) – A Hindu nationalist mob this month beat three pastors and manhandled an officer at a police station in the capital of central India’s Chhattisgarh state, sources said. Police disrupted the worship of New Life Fellowship Ministry in Raipur on Sept. 5 and summoned pastor Harish Sahu to the Purani Basti police station. The officers arrived in a police van with eight to 10 Hindu nationalists, Pastor Sahu said. “I was conducting the worship when they arrived,” Pastor Sahu told Morning Star News. “The policemen asked me what I was doing, and I said that I was sharing the Word of God from the Holy Book.” The Hindu extremists in the police van tried to enter the church building, he said. “The Hindu mob tried to enter the church while I was preaching, and I saw that the police blocked the entrance of the door and refused to let them in,” he said. “Then a police officer entered the church, filmed the service for few minutes, clicked some pictures and went outside and showed the video and pictures to the extremists.” Police told Pastor Sahu to come to the police station, and he said

Bangaluru, Sept. 29, 2021: The BJP government of Mr. Modi's party in the southern Indian state of Karnataka ordered the police to stop what they call “forced conversions” of Hindus to the Christian faith. According to Matters India, the elected head of the state Mr. Basavaraj Bommai on September 28 instructed the district deputy commissioners to be vigilant about the conversions in their jurisdictions and punish those violating the rule. The order comes five days after a delegation of Catholic bishops met the state governor to express their concern about the misuse of this proposed Anti-Conversion Law in the state. Father Faustine Lobo, the director of the regional Pastoral Center in Bangalore, says the Catholic Church does not force anyone to convert. But the Hindu nationalist party and the governments controlled by them argue that providing an education to a child in a Christian school where prayers and devotions are conducted amounts to "forced conversion". They also argue that the church is taking advantage of the poor who go to hospitals run by them, to convert people. They say that providing free medical care makes subtle impressions on the people which could lead them to embrace the Christian faith. “If we really wanted to convert people

Five families were forced by Hindu activists to flee their village and told they could only return if they renounced their faith Dalit Christian families are living in fear in the eastern Indian state of Odisha after being ostracized by Hindu activists for their faith. The five families were chased out of Lodamila village in Kandhamal district and told that they could only return if they renounced their religion. The Christians say they were manhandled and abused before fleeing, while one family later had their house burned to the ground. The Christians, who had been living among 45 Hindu families in Lodamila, are staying 12 kilometers away from the village in a bamboo and grass house near a forest. Father Dibakar Parichha, an official of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Archdiocese, told UCA News that the Christians are in “a state of shock and fear for their lives.” He said the Christians had twice tried to file a first information report at the district police station but police were trying to avoid accepting their case. Unfortunately, the victims are still running from pillar to post to register their case in their own land. We are with the victims, hope to bring justice to the poor and downtrodden and will do whatever

PREVENTING SOMEONE FROM FOLLOWING A RELIGION OF CHOICE CURTAILS THE FREEDOM GUARANTEED IN THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION Christians in India have sought the federal government’s intervention to ensure the repeal of anti-conversion laws enacted by some provincial governments making religious conversion by force or allurement a punishable offense Preventing someone from embracing or practicing a religion of choice curtailed the freedom of conscience and religious beliefs guaranteed in the Indian constitution, they said at a special meeting with Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the federal minister for minority affairs, and John Barla, the junior minister, in New Delhi on Sept. 28. Another key issue they sought to highlight was the new legal restrictions being imposed on receiving foreign donations for charitable works meant for the benefit of India’s poor and deprived masses. Naqvi highlighted India’s age-old tradition of celebrating all religions and underlined the need to strengthen the shared cultural heritage and legacy of coexistence. “Any attempt to disturb this fabric of unity and harmony will hurt the soul of India,” he said. The 50 Christian leaders belonging to various denominations submitted a memorandum listing all issues plaguing the minority community. It was read out by Archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto of Delhi during the three-and-a-half-hour meeting. “It was

New Delhi: A 14-year-old Dalit Christian boy, who allegedly had acid thrown upon him in Bihar’s Gaya district in August, succumbed to his injuries on September 26, the Telegraph reported. While police claim that the boy, Nitish Kumar, died by self-immolation due to a familial dispute, the victim’s family allege that he had acid thrown upon him by a group of men on a motorcycle, on account of the family’s faith. Vakil Ravidas, the boy’s father, is a rickshaw puller who converted to Christianity five years ago. Speaking to the Telegraph, members of the family said that they were threatened by locals – including some who appeared to be “Hindutva activists” – and warned against going to church. The police had refused to register a case against these men. The family had refused to speak to the press after the alleged incident had taken place on August 11 and only submitted their account to the newspaper after his death on Sunday. The station house officer (SHO) of Makhar said that the police conducted enquiries and found that the boy had set himself on fire after one of his brothers forcibly cut his hair. The victim’s eldest brother, Rajeev Kumar disputed this, reiterating that some