Seven Degar Montagnard Christians are among those being held in a Vietnamese prison after they were detained as part of a major government backed crackdown on ‘illegal’ house churches in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, their friends said.
New clashes between Hindus and Christians in India’s eastern state of Orissa has left at least one woman dead and more than a dozen people injured, some critically, police said Tuesday, September 30.
Dozens of Christian villagers in Laos were reportedly facing uncertainty Thursday, September 25, after local authorities told them they will be expelled because several Christian families refuse to renounce their faith in Christ. It came as a widow said she had forgiven those who killed her husband because of his church activities, the latest in several violent incidents against Christian villagers in parts of the Communist nation.
An international Christian aid group said Thursday, September 25, it has begun helping to rebuild a mainly Christian village in a remote area of Indonesia, which was destroyed by Muslim militants earlier this year.
Residents in North Jakarta have ordered the pastor of a small congregation to cease holding services in his home, despite a letter of permission issued by the Religious Affairs department.
The unprecedented wave of anti-Christian attacks that began a month ago continued in the past week with more incidents of murder, rape and arson, mostly in the eastern state of Orissa and southern state of Karnataka. Two Christians were also found murdered in the northern state of Uttarakhand.
After three weeks of widespread attacks on Christians and their property in Orissa state and other parts of the country, the federal government finally warned two states that their failure to prevent violence could lead to the imposition of “President’s Rule.”
There was concern Wednesday, September 17, about the whereabouts of possibly dozens of Degar Montagnard Christians who have been detained in Vietnam’s Central Highlands as part of a major crackdown on unregistered worship, friends said.
Suspected Hindu militants attacked nine churches in parts of India’s southern state of Karnataka Sunday, September 14, as part of ongoing violent protests against the alleged conversion of Hindus into Christianity by missionaries, police said.
Attacks on Christians continue to increase in Karnataka State.
A Pakistani court has granted custody of a 13-year-old Christian girl to the Muslim man accused of abducting her, observers of the controversial case confirmed Wednesday, September 10.
As tensions continued in the eastern state of Orissa, Hindu nationalist groups intensified attacks on churches and Christian institutions in the southern state of Karnataka.
An active Degar Montagnard Christian remained under house arrest in Vietnam’s Central Highlands Monday, September 8, after he was already forced to sign a statement renouncing Christianity and pledging to stop attending a local church, his friends said.
Ten Vietnamese officers of the local police authority some of them in uniform, others in plain clothes and others in disguise, last Sunday, (August 31), rushed into the Church With A Mission house church interrupting the service and creating great anxiety among new converts.
Christians were facing an ultimatum in India’s troubled state of Orissa to turn to Hinduism or face expulsion from their villages or even death following weekend violence in which at least two people were killed, missionaries said.
A land dispute led to two attacks on the headquarters of the Indonesian Christian Students’ Movement (GMKI) and its parent ministry, the Alliance of Indonesian Churches (PGI), last week (August 26 and 28).
Suspected Hindu militants set fire to several houses in India’s eastern state of Orissa Monday, September 1, where church groups said recent attacks against Christians left at least 36 people dead.
Native Christian missionaries were among victims in India’s Bihar State Tuesday, September 2, amid reports that hundreds of churches and homes were under water because of devastating floods, which have displaced some three million people and claimed at least 90 lives.
A Maoist group today claimed responsibility for killing Hindu extremist leader Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his disciples in Orissa state on August 23, saying that fanatical Hindus’ claims that Christians murdered him were “lies.”
The violence against Christians in India is continuing unabated.