The latest report on violence against Christians worldwide by Open Doors said 23,793 Christians were physically or mentally abused in India in the last one year alone. It's a number more than the total abused in all the other countries put together. The Dutch-based Open Doors NGO blamed the Indian government of turning 'a blind eye to those persecuting Christians'.
The watchdog's annual report confirmed 3,066 deaths worldwide.
Fourth year in a row, Nigeria once again recorded the most number of deaths. Last year, it accounted for some 2,000 deaths, or two-thirds of last year's total, a three-fold increase on the previous year's recorded tally of 695 deaths.
"Even as the killings by (the Islamic militant group) Boko Haram in the northeast declined, those carried out by (Muslim) Peul nomads are rising in the centre of the country," said the report.
Egypt experienced a sudden spike in persecution last year, with more than 200 people driven from their homes and 128 killed.
Islamist extremists, who have terrorized parts of Turkey and Egypt after fleeing Syria and Iraq, have been responsible for the unprecedented rise in violence and aggression towards Christians there.
For the 17th year in the row, North Korea still ranked as the worse country in the world to be a Christian, with Open Doors reporting its estimated 300,000 Christians faced "certain death" in camps if their faith was found out.
"As the regime becomes more and more isolated, it is becoming increasingly paranoid and pitiless toward anyone suspected of treason against its leader," Kim Jong-Un, it said.
Afghanistan ranked second-worst for the persecution of Christians. The report said "the clan" to be "the main persecutor, chasing out or killing Christians to maintain the community's honor."
In the neighboring Pakistan, witnessed a deadly assault on a church in Quetta last month, was ranked worse in terms of the prevalence of attacks.
The NGO said the "regular attacks on churches (arson, broken windows, sabotaged power lines), the 700 kidnappings per year, rapes or forced marriages for Christian women and the frequency of riots after rumors of blasphemy."
