Christian Persecution – Asia

The president of Hopegivers International (HI), one of the largest Evangelical mission groups active in India, was detained Thursday, March 16, by security forces after being on the run to avoid arrest for his alleged involvement in inciting hatred.

The Rev. Tongkhojang Lunkim is still missing two months after a rebel army in Northeast India kidnapped the administrative secretary of the Kuki Christian Church (KCC) on January 17, and relatives fear for his safety.

After nearly a month in jail in the tense Indian state of Rajasthan a Gospel for Asia (GFA) missionary and several other Christians have been released after allegedly being falsely charged with the murder of a child, BosNewsLife learned Thursday, March 16.

Hindu militants have threatened to assassinate the leaders of one of India’s largest evangelical mission groups and plan to take over its orphanages, churches and mission schools in the Indian state of Rajahstan, officials said Wednesday, March 15.

A human rights group expressed concern Wednesday, March 15, over a possible new government crackdown on Christian villagers in Laos.

Representatives of Vietnam’s embattled Degar Montagnard Christians remained concerned Wednesday, March 15, over the whereabouts of fellow believers who they said were tortured and detained by security forces for refusing “to abandon Christianity” by joining a government church “which worships [Communist leader] Ho Chi Minh.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is currently not permitting persecuted Christian refugees from Burma asylum and protection in the U.S.

Authorities have granted longstanding requests of three church organizations to legally function in Ho Chi Minh City, sources told Compass.

A Voice of the Martyrs contact report from Laos announced the confiscation of the homes and fields of 15 Khmu Christian families living in the village of Ban Nam Haeng, Muang Baeng District, Udomxai Province. This comes after local officials of the Laotian communist government unsuccessfully attempted to evict the Christian families last year. Earlier this month, the anti-Christian leader of the village resorted to posting hand-written notices on the doors of Christian houses, stating that all of their farm land was being confiscated and given to other village members.

Fearing a possible bomb attack, 2,500 orphaned and abandoned children remained trapped inside a Christian orphanage in the city of Kota in India’s Rajahstan state Wednesday, March 8, as Hindu militants backed by local police continued their siege of the complex for a second week, officials said.

Approximately 15 policemen from Rajasthan and Karnataka states forcefully entered the home of prominent Christian leader Sajan K. George on Monday (March 6) in his absence.

Three Christians convicted of murder “on very shaky evidence” are to be executed “imminently” despite international protests, sources close to the case said Monday March 6.

Accusing the pastor of an independent church in the northern state of Punjab of “forcible conversion,” an Indian woman from Canada and three unidentified youths on February 8 beat the Christian leader so severely that he required hospital treatment.

Predominantly Christian Karen villagers were believed to be on the run Tuesday, February 21, amid reports that Burma’s government forces launched a new offensive against them.

Protesting caricatures of the prophet Muhammad first published in Danish media, thousands of demonstrators in northern Pakistan and Lahore last week destroyed private and public property, at times targeting Christians.