A mob of Sikhs and Hindus armed with swords and wooden rods attacked a church meeting in India’s Punjab state last month, breaking the leg of a pastor’s wife and slashing the head of a teenaged congregant, Morning Star News (MSN) reports. India ranks 10 on the Open Doors USA World Watch List of top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.
The leader of the underground church in Afghanistan has given a first-hand ground report, explaining that believers are in grave danger and that the Taliban have a “hit-list” of Christians they are searching for to murder, the Christian Post (CP) reports. Known as “Pastor X” for security reasons, the church leader gave his report to the Global Catalytic Ministries non-profit organization.
A pastor and his family in Malibhimdal, India have been driven into hiding following death threats by local Hindu nationalists enraged at their conversion from Hinduism to Christianity, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. Persecution against Christians in India has intensified since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party took power in 2014.
American evangelist Franklin Graham has urged believers to pray for the “thousands of people desperately trying to escape from Afghanistan,” including Afghan Christians and up to 15,000 Americans as well as their allies. Graham, son of the late legendary preacher Billy Graham, appealed “after the country’s fall to the Taliban” group, which he called Islamic extremists.
Islamist Taliban militants ruling Afghanistan have begun executing Christians who refuse to renounce their faith, a well-informed Christian broadcaster said Tuesday.
Rights groups, including Release International, are warning that the persecution of Christians in Afghanistan will likely intensify now the Taliban have taken power and the US and NATO have withdrawn, Christian Today (CT) reports. The Afghan church had been driven underground by Islamic apostasy laws even before the Taliban takeover, but the situation is now reported to be “dire.”
The Taliban have taken over Afghanistan and local Christian pastors facing the threat of intensified bloody persecution are standing in faith while calling on the worldwide Body of Christ for prayer. “God has a purpose and a plan,” an Afghan pastor told International Christian Concern (ICC).
Three Christians have been imprisoned in India’s Uttar Pradesh state after Hindu extremists beat them up and accused them of unlawfully converting people to Christianity, Morning Star News reports. Persecution against Christians in India has greatly intensified since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014.
Dozens of devoted Christians have fled their homes in southeastern Bangladesh after militant Buddhists damaged their church, church sources say.
Amid anti-Christian propaganda from the oppressive North Korean Kim regime, North Koreans are still hearing the truth of the gospel through a partnership between ICC (International Christian Concern) and FNKR (Free North Korea Radio.)
Vietnam has come under fire from US government officials and international human rights advocates after Vietnamese authorities raided two churches and arrested over 20 Christians, almost all of whom belong to the persecuted Montagnard ethnic group, in May, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
Five Sikhs in Punjab, India physically attacked a widowed mother and her daughters on June 20, because the women are Christians, Morning Star News (MSN) reported on August 4. The five attackers are members of the same family; three of the perpetrators are in jail pending trial.
Enraged that members of their community turned to Christ from Buddhism, Buddhist radicals in Suandrapara, Bangladesh recently destroyed a church building after weeks of threatening the congregation, International Christian Concern reports.
Christian aid workers warned Friday that Afghan Christians are “at a huge risk” as American troops leave the country.
A pastor has paid tribute to eight Christian families driven out of their village in eastern India earlier this year due to their “strong faith” in Jesus Christ.
Church leaders in conflict-ridden Myanmar demand the immediate release of three pastors detained for organizing prayers- for-peace services.
Pakistani police have reportedly detained several suspects after a Christian worker died following attacks by co-workers.
A Christian native missionary in Myanmar says “more than 200 Christian ministers” have died of COVID-19 as the military government restricts medicines and oxygen supplies.
Police in India’s Uttarakhand state arrested and tortured Christian leader Pastor Sanjay Kumar Bharati last month, accusing him of having illegal conversations about religion, International Christian Concern reports. India ranks 10 on the US Open Doors 2021 Watch List of top 50 countries which persecute Christians.
A UK Parliamentary group reported last week that government officials in North Korea have been murdering Christians and other people groups at a rate that may amount to genocide, the Washington Examiner reports. The UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea (APPG) said its report is based on evidence of atrocities committed by North Korean officials against various people groups, including Christians, from 2014 to 2021.