After overnight group clashes in Janwada village in which 11 persons were injured, the Cyberabad Commissioner of Police Avinash Mohanty imposed Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) prohibiting gathering of five or more persons. The prohibitory orders will be in force for a full week, starting the noon on February 14 till 11 p.m. on February 21 (Wednesday).As many as 14 people suffered injuries in the clashes involving two parties in Janwada of Shankarpally mandal in Rangareddy district. According to Mokila police inspector B Veera Babu: “The fight broke out between the two parties at around 8 pm on Tuesday on the issue of road widening. The villagers asked to widen the road while the members of the church protested calling it encroaching on their land.” Telangana United Christian Pastors Association (TUCPA) general secretary Goneh Solomon Raj, who along with a delegation of Christian leaders visited the victims at the hospital, said the clashes erupted over laying a cement road that reportedly passed through the church premises. “The villagers wanted to extend eight feet into the church’s land, and an argument rose between between the village sarpanch, Mandal Praja Parishad (MPP), the Ward members and the members of the church,” he said, and

RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh govt plans to bring in a legislation to stop "illegal religious conversion" in the state.During a debate on budgetary demands in the assembly on Wed, minister for religious trusts and endowments Brijmohan Agrawal said many forces were "at work to alter the demography of Chhattisgarh". In order to prevent these activities, an anti-conversion bill, titled 'Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill', would be introduced during the current session itself, he announced. Around a fortnight ago, CM Vishnu Deo Sal had alleged that Christian missionaries were carrying out conversion under the garb of healthcare and education. Speaking at a school event, Sai had said the missionaries were "very active" in the state and were "dominating" the two sectors, resulting in a rise in religious conversion. "All this will stop soon, and Hindutva will gain in strength," he had said. BJP has repeatedly declared that it will put an end to conversion by force or allurement. In Nov 2023, a week before the second phase of voting in the assembly polls, home minister Amit Shah had alleged that there was "unfettered religious conversion of tribals in Congress rule". "We will not allow anyone to convert tribals without their consent," Shah had said at

Five Christians are among 21 people arrested in a village in southern India after the recent clashes over a land dispute linked to the widening of a public road near a Methodist Church. The police arrested the 21 people on Feb. 15 and were searching for others who are absconding after the clashes at Janwada village in Ranga Reddy district Telangana state.“Police arrested our five believers and have also registered a case against 19 other Christians based on a complaint from the opposition party,” said Bishop M. A. Daniel, who heads the Methodist Church of India and is based in the state capital Hyderabad. The top leader of India's Methodist Church said around 20 Christians were injured when they were attacked by a group of Hindu villagers on Feb. 13.Those arrested and still absconding are charged with criminal offenses and under the provisions of a special law dealing with atrocities against Dalits or former untouchable people. The Christians were agitated over attempts to appropriate church land for widening a road without their consent, according to a Church official who did not want to be named. The situation worsened when more than 150 villagers arrived on the scene to confront them. Arguments turned violent and the groups attacked each other.More

An Indian Catholic diocese in southern Karnataka state has sought justice for a nun who was sacked from her teaching job under pressure from hardline Hindu groups who alleged she spoke ill of Hindu deities and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Sister Mary Prabha Selvaraj, a teacher at St. Gerosa English Medium Higher Primary School, run by the Sisters of Charity in Mangaluru (formerly Mangalore), was removed on Feb. 12 following protests against her. The protests were led by D. Vedavyas Kamath, a legislator from the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who vowed to continue them until the nun was shown the door.The allegation against Selvaraj was based on an audio clip circulated by a parent on social media. The audio clip reportedly carried the voice of the nun teaching a poem, Work is Worship, by Rabindranath Tagore, the Indian poet who won the Nobel for literature in 1913. The poem stresses that God is not confined to a particular religious place of worship. Soon after the audio clip went viral on social media platforms, there were calls made for boycotting Christian schools.The protesters claimed the nun made derogatory remarks against Hindu deities and the Indian prime minister and caused chaos in the school, which has more than 1,000 students. District administration officials who visited

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the criminal trial in a Madhya Pradesh court against a person accused of forcibly converting a couple and their two children to Christianity. A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra noted that the local court proceeded with the trial despite an earlier undertaking by the counsel for Madhya Pradesh before it that nothing will happen in judicial proceedings till January 5. The SC had on December 15, 2023, heard the plea of Christian missionary Ajai Lall challenging his prosecution in the case for the first time. After taking note of the submissions of senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Lall, the bench had issued notices to the Madhya Pradesh government and the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. The case was filed by NCPCR after a video of a woman who claimed that she, her husband, and children were asked to convert to Christianity in exchange for money and were harassed by the petitioner when they stopped going to church went viral. This article is originally published on https://indianexpress.com/article/india/supreme-court-stays-trial-against-man-for-converting-others-to-christianity-9097358/lite/

MUMBAI: Allegations of unauthorised data collection and profiling of citizens in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) under the guise of collecting data for Maratha survey reservations have surfaced raising concerns among Christian community and civil rights groups. The Bombay Catholic Sabha (BCS) and Citizens for Justice & Peace (CJP) have raised objections to what they describe as ‘a clandestine operation conducted under the guise of the Maratha Reservation Survey’. The allegations surfaced during a press conference organised by the BCS and CJP at the Mumbai Press Club on the subject “Policing and Profiling of Citizens: How a surreptitious NPR database and selective surveys are profiling vulnerable citizens.” Reports received from various areas including, Vikhroli, Gokuldham, Goregaon East, and Thane suggest that individuals purportedly conducting the survey have been using app-based software to collect the data. The surveyors, whose identities remain undisclosed, have been accused of asking intrusive questions about religious affiliation and conversion history, particularly targeting Christian households. One particularly disturbing incident, according to Dolphy D’souza, president of BCS, involved surveyors entering a cosmopolitan housing society and singling out Christian homes, reminiscent of past instances of community profiling. Melwyn Fernandes, secretary, Association of Concerned Christians, highlighted the unsettling nature of the inquiries, stating, “Many

An FIR has been filed against five people, including two Karnataka BJP legislators, Vedavyas Kamath and Y Bharath Shetty, for allegedly inciting people and forcing students of a school in Mangaluru to chant Jai Shri Ram.The management of St Gerosa English Higher Primary School said Kamath initiated a protest in front of the school without seeking clarification from them. It is alleged that students were forced to chant Jai Shri Ram. The case has also been filed against two corporators, Sandeep Garodi and Bharath Kumar, and Bajrang Dal leader Sharan Pumpwell in the matter. The protesters were also accused of instigating enmity between the Christian and Hindu communities by directing slogans against Christianity during the protest. Given the sensitivity to communal issues in Dakshina Kannada, the district in which Mangaluru is situated, such actions could have created law and order issues, police said. Therefore, an FIR has been lodged, seeking stringent action against those who protested in front of the school.The case has been registered under sections 143, 153A, 295A, 505(2), 506 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). This article is originally published on  https://www.indiatoday.in/india/karnataka/story/karnataka-bjp-mlas-case-jai-shri-ram-chant-convent-school-protest-2502302-2024-02-15

Religious Conversions: After coming to power, BJP, which has been doing politics on the issue of conversion in Chhattisgarh, is now going to bring 'Religion Independent Bill' to stop religious conversions. Brijmohan Agarwal, Education and Culture Minister in the Vishnu Dev government, announced this in the Chhattisgarh Assembly on Wednesday. He said that many forces are working to destroy the demography of Chhattisgarh. This law is being brought for such people, so that apart from the legal conversions, all the illegal conversions that are being done can be stopped. Politics has been happening between BJP and Congress: It is noteworthy that before the assembly elections, BJP was cornering the Congress government in Chhattisgarh over religious conversion. BJP alleged that a game of conversion is going on through missionaries in the tribal areas of Chhattisgarh. However, the Congress party has also been showing a mirror to the BJP on this. Countering the conversion issue in Chhattisgarh, Congress had said that instead of making allegations, the government should issue a white paper on how many churches are there in the state and under whose government these churches were built. The Chief Minister had made these allegations against the missionaries: It is noteworthy that a few days

India (International Christian Concern) – Christian minorities in Chhattisgarh, India, face increasingly severe religious persecution at the hands of radical Hindu nationalists. Recent incidents have highlighted the targeted attacks on these communities, leading to heightened concern for their safety and well-being. A group of Christian farmers was attacked by radical Hindu nationalists.“We had grown good crops last year and all of a sudden, one day, violence took place against us and all the crops were left for animals to eat, and all the animals ate up my hard-earned crops,” said one farmer. “We do not have any food to eat. It was such a tough time for us. We had no seeds and fertilizer to cultivate the land. We were honestly seeking the Lord and waiting on God for his help.” International Christian Concern (ICC) aided 50 farmers (and their families) in the community by purchasing seeds and fertilizers for their farms, aiming to help them rebuild their livelihoods in the aftermath of the attack. Another farmer said, “We as a family suffered so much loss due to no seeds and fertilizers for planting crops. God provided the needed products through ICC. It’s been such a big help to us and all our farmers.

Hyderabad: Atleast three had head injuries while some had minor ones after a fight broke out between two groups in Methodist church in Janwada village, Narsingi of Ranga Reddy district. One group pelted stones on some people who were practicing a religion. The incident happened on Tuesday night. The injured were treated in Gandhi hospital and got discharged.The incident happened after there came an issue of road widening. While the villagers asked to widen the road, the members of the church protested calling it encroaching on their land. During the attack, doors and windows of the church area were broken. Sources said that the attackers also assaulted women who came in their way. According to the victims, they claimed that they were attacked as they belonged to the downtrodden sections of the society. According to one of the church member, "There has been road widening issues for years and the church objected since the road to left and right is being planned. The people came to start work and both sides of people started arguing and broke into a big fight." Whie the Church people took refuge in church, the mob entered church and vandalized and attacked them. Some of attackers names are reported