Christian Persecution – Asia

Police raided a home in Jabalpur city, Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday (June 6) and arrested the Christians there after officers and Hindu extremists pressured a neighbor to file a charge.

A leading Christian human rights watchdog expressed concern Friday, June 9, over the whereabouts of 10 North Koreans and two Christian South Korean aid workers who were detained in Laos as they tried to find a “safe haven in a Southeast Asian country.”

Three small children in Vietnam’s Central Highlands were without caring adults Saturday, June 10, nearly three weeks after their mother and mother-in-law were arrested for refusing to join the official church which they claim worships a Communist leader instead of Jesus Christ, friends said.

Christians in India’s volatile state of Andhra Pradesh were anticipating more attacks against them Sunday, June 11, amid reports of sectarian violence in which at least 13 people died, a police raid and threats in a village where women were allegedly raped for refusing to abandon their faith in Christ.

An evangelical pastor in India’s troubled state of Madhya Pradesh who was arrested while leading a house prayer meeting this weekend was reportedly free Wednesday, June 7, after a court released him on bail.

Burma’s military continued its “biggest offensive” in nearly a decade against the, predominantly Christian, Karen community and eyewitnesses reported killings, burning of villages and the capture of civilians, including children, investigators confirmed Tuesday, June 6.

With the encouragement of a local chief and the apparent backing of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, villagers in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh on Sunday (May 28) gang-raped two Christian women after the husband of one refused to deny Christ.

Christian rights activists on Thursday, June 1, welcomed a decision by United Nations human rights officials to pressure North Korea to suspend the scheduled execution of Son Jong Nam, a detained Christian who criticized living conditions in his Communist-run nation.

The administration of Rajasthan state’s Kota district has leveled fresh charges of “exciting . . . disaffection towards the government of India” against a major evangelical mission organization, a move that could lead to the re-arrest of its leaders, news reports said Thursday, June 1.

A Pakistani Christian reportedly spent his first full day in freedom Wednesday, May 31, after more than seven years of imprisonment for allegedly burning the Koran, a crime he says he never committed.

Several indigenous Degar Montagnard Christians in Vietnam’s Central Highlands recovered from their injuries Sunday, May 28, after they were detained and tortured by Vietnamese security forces for refusing to abandon their Christian faith and follow the ‘official’ Communist-backed church, their friends said.

Vietnam’s well-known Mennonite Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, whose church and adjacent home in Ho Chi Minh City was raided by security forces, said Saturday, May 27, he was “badly beaten” at his thighs and stomach and warned his congregation will sue the Communist government.

Animist worshipers of nature in a village in Jharkhand state this week humiliated and drove out a local family for becoming Christians.

Vietnamese troops continued to surround several villages of predominantly Christian Montagnard Degar people Monday, May 22, amid fresh concerns over a government crackdown against this ethnic group, their representatives said.

Amid widespread criticism of the Rajasthan anti-conversion bill by Christian and human rights organizations, Rajasthan Gov. Pratibha Patil on Friday (May 19) refused to sign it into law, saying its provisions would violate religious freedom.

Hindu extremists yesterday vandalized an independent church in Gauri Nadi village, about 12 kilometers (seven miles) from Jabalpur city in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh. The mob beat a church member and lodged a police complaint against a pastor for ‘;forcibly converting’ Hindus.

Police in Indonesia announced Wednesday (May 10) that suspected Islamic terrorists have confessed to beheading three Indonesian schoolgirls in Poso, on the island of Sulawesi, in October 2005.

Unruly mobs have attacked three churches over the past fortnight, in one incident setting car tires on fire in front of a Methodist church to prevent people from entering for Sunday worship.

A woman in the city of Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh state, has accused six of her uncles and their pastor of trying to forcefully convert her to Christianity.