India

Not even a judge’s reprimand of police spared an impoverished pastor in India from being jailed on baseless claims of fraudulent conversion, one of the latest examples of how Hindu extremists misuse “anti-conversion” laws.

Police in India have issued questionnaires to at least 40 churches in Indore, Madhya Pradesh state seeking information that Christians fear will be used by Hindu extremists to attack them, sources said.

At least 33 people were killed, and many others are still trapped following flooding and landslides in India’s Himalayan region.

Police in central India on July 26 beat a Christian educator and filed baseless charges against him of human trafficking and fraudulent conversion of eight Christian students he was escorting to a Bible institute, sources said.

The state of Manipur in north-eastern India has been plunged into an unofficial civil war, as ethnic and religious violence has ravaged the state since early May.

The violence, lasting over three months, has resulted in a staggering toll of over 150 people dead and over 500 wounded. Over 60,000 people are estimated to have been internally displaced as the army, paramilitary forces, and police strive to quell the escalating violence. Over 400 Churches have been destroyed in the attacks, along with over 5000 houses and countless families torn apart.

According to a New Delhi-based human rights group report, there has been an increase in violence against Christians in India.

India's Supreme Court has called on the government in the northeastern state of Manipur to provide an updated status report on the situation in the region after a tribal Christian was beheaded and three others were shot dead.

On the evening of May 3, an ethnic Christian in northern India’s Manipur state received a call from a relative advising her to pack up and leave home with her children immediately.

A surge of ethnic violence with a growing religious component in northeastern India led to the killing on Friday (June 9) of a woman in her church building and two other Christians, sources said.

Having spent a month in jail on baseless charges before his release on bail, Pastor R. Kirubendran was baffled at hostilities from police, media and villagers after serving a community in northern India without problem for several years.