Pastors Humiliated and Arrested in India
Four pastors who have been preaching the gospel for many years in Orissa and nearby villages for many years were forcibly stopped from continuing their work.
Four pastors who have been preaching the gospel for many years in Orissa and nearby villages for many years were forcibly stopped from continuing their work.
Police forces and Hindu militants interrupted a major Christian convention in India’s state of Chhattisgarh and forced a pastor to hand over names of people who “accepted Christ”, a Christian official told BosNewsLife Sunday, October 21.
As Christianity spreads in this Muslim-majority country, an increasingly frequent refrain is heard in various quarters: “People become Christians after getting huge amounts of money as a reward for conversion.”
An uneasy calm returned Monday, October 15, to the village of Gowindhi, near Pakistan’s second largest city of Lahore, after a violent mob of Muslims “ransacked and desecrated” the local evangelical New Apostolic Faith church, rights investigators said.
Pastor Joseph Thadikka, 57, and his wife Ammini, 52, of New India Bible Church were severely beaten and admitted to the Mananthavadi district hospital with serious head and leg injuries.
A major advocacy group says that hundreds of Degar prisoners remain in prison for standing up for human rights, for spreading Christianity or for fleeing to Cambodia. Many have died from internal injuries caused by beatings. Indigenous rights are routinely violated, and racism and discrimination are serious problems in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
A village church in Laos that once had nearly 2,000 members has shrunk to only a few dozen daring to attend, amid a deadly government crackdown on local believers accused of being “separatist rebels,” a Christian news agency reported Thursday, October 11.
A pastor and a church believer were jailed on Friday, October 5th, in a village called Murlar which is 20kms from Kanker District in Chhattisgarh State, India. (Kanker is about 140 kms from Raipur, the capital city of Chhattisgarh).
The Congress Party government in Himachal Pradesh state has brought into force its “anti-conversion” law six months after the governor gave assent to the controversial bill regulating religious conversions.
A dozen RSS Hindu activists caught hold of Pastor at the bus stand of Kendrapara, Orissa, who was distributing some gospel tracts and literatures and then handed him over to the police, demanding for his arrest on October 2.
An Indian evangelist working for international Christian broadcaster Trans World Radio has been shot and killed because of his involvement in converting Hindus to Christianity, police reportedly confirmed Friday, September 28.
The United Nations envoy for Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, arrived in the country Saturday, September 29, to urge the junta to end its violent crackdown on those opposing the regime, a day after satellite images confirmed that government-backed forces massively burn villages of predominantly Christian Karens.
The commander for Pakistan of The Salvation Army, a major Christian mission organization, has been shot and killed, a Protestant news agency reported Sunday, September 30, the latest in a series of attacks against Christians in the country.
In a case typical of false accusations that Hindu extremists file against Christian workers, a pastor and his sister have been cleared of charges of rape and forced abortion in Chhattisgarh state.
At least one million North Koreans, many of them Christians, are believed to be held in North Korea’s concentration camps, more than previously thought, investigators revealed Monday, September 24.
A Pakistani Christian teenager remained in hiding Tuesday, September 18, a day after a court overturned his prison sentence and acquitted him on blasphemy charges.
Tensions remained high Wednesday, September 19, in an area of the Indonesian city of Tangerand on the island of Java, after several Christians were injured when a congregation of the Protestant Batak Church was attacked by an angry Muslim mob, investigators said.
Influential Christian groups will hold a major rally to protest against “the alarming increase” of persecution of Christians in the Indian state of Karnataka, a key organizer told BosNewsLife Thursday, September 13.
Several Degar Montagnard House Church Christians in Vietnam’s Central Highlands remained detained Tuesday, September 11, for refusing to abandon their faith, and authorities denied Christian villagers access to local wells, investigators and missionaries said.
Despite reported execution threats and police abuse, Iranians “massively” turn to Christianity, fueling an “unprecedented” demand for Persian Bibles and New Testaments, BosNewsLife learned from Iranian sources Saturday, September 1.