India: Fact-Finding Mission Suggests Christmas Violence was Preplanned
Emerging facts indicate that India’s largest spate of anti-Christian violence, which has rendered thousands homeless in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, was preplanned.
Emerging facts indicate that India’s largest spate of anti-Christian violence, which has rendered thousands homeless in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, was preplanned.
There were new reports of attacks by suspected Hindu militants against Christians in India on New Year’s Day, shortly after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to protect the country’s minority Christians in a letter to the widow of an Australian missionary killed nine years ago.
Over one thousand Christians, including priests, nuns, women and children, have fled to the jungles of India’s Orissa State where deadly anti-Christian violence entered its seventh day, a church official told BosNewsLife Sunday, December 30.
Indian church leaders on Thursday, December 27, appealed to authorities to intervene after Hindu extremists attacked dozens of Christian institutions, including churches, in the religiously volatile eastern state of Orissa over Christmas, reportedly killing up to three people and injuring many others.
Several people were injured when a Hindu mob attacked a Christmas worship service in India’s religiously volatile eastern state of Orissa Monday, December 24, destroying a crib as well as light and sound equipment, Christians told BosNewsLife.
An advocacy group representing churches and mission organizations says Hindu militants backed by political parties and groups have carried out at least 500 attacks against mainly Christian missionaries in the past 23 months, and urged the central government to halt the violence.
A mob allegedly led by a Hindu extremist group demolished a house church and beat the pastor and believers on November 19 in Chhattisgarh state’s Bastar district. The following day, a young relative of the pastor allegedly kidnapped by the extremists was found dead in a nearby jungle.
Two Indian evangelical pastors were free on bail Tuesday, November 27, after being detained over the weekend for allegedly “forcing” Hindus to accept Christianity, amid reports that India’s most influential Hindu organization has stepped up efforts to crackdown on devoted Christians.
A rash of violence in Maharashtra state last weekend, Christian leaders say, is typical of a growing history of unchecked, Hindu extremist crimes against Christians in Thane district.
A young Indian evangelist and shepherd has been killed by Hindu priests seeking human sacrifices for a Hindu ‘goddess’, the latest in a series of violent attacks against Christians in India, BosNewsLife learned Wednesday, November 7.
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.
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 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.
It is Easter 2007, a day when the world is celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. They came from near and far throughout Central and Midwestern Nepal, the throng of masses converging and marching through the center of the crown city of Pokhara, at the foot of the Annapurna mountain range. No, this is not another Communist Maoist rally that we see so often these days, but it is a rally of men and women, boys and girls joyfully lifting up the banner of Jesus Christ, their Lord and King! Jesus said, “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me!†Today Jesus is being lifted up in major cities in Nepal.
Several arrested missionaries and church leaders were recovering from injuries in Western India late Tuesday, May 8, after they were attacked by Hindu militants and dragged to local police, the latest in a series of violent incidents against Indian Christians.
A tense calm returned to a small town in the southern Indian state of Karnataka after at least six people were injured Sunday, May 6, when suspected Hindu militants demanding the closure of a new church attacked evangelical Christians following a worship service, investigators told BosNewsLife.
There was increased concern Wednesday, May 2, about the plight of Christian Dalits after India’s Supreme Court again postponed action in a landmark equal rights case, Christian rights workers said.