Navin used to attack Christians. Then he became a pastor and the extremists came for him and his family. Some people in their village started threatening the couple, telling them to stop gathering with their church and stop their ministry. They said that Christianity was a foreign religion and that they were 'anti-Indian.'
A pastor in Madhya Pradesh was attacked and beaten by a group of extremists who stormed into a residence where the priest and three other Christians had met for prayer.
Attack on Christian congregations in Uttar Pradesh with claims of forced religious conversions has resulted in the detention of many believers.
According to experts, social media plays a significant part in the persecution of Christians in India. The world community as well as financial organisations and technological corporations all have a responsibility to play in putting an end to it.
“We have been forced to stop all the worship gatherings in the villages." While the members of the church are “quite strong in the Lord… they are worried about the consequences that they will have [to] bear.”
Christians are urged to continue working for the poor and abandoned in the same way as Father Stan Swamy did. “We are not here only to keep his memory alive but also to support his work among the marginalised, especially tribal people.”
According to the half-yearly report issued by the Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI), there were 145 incidences of violence against Christians in India.
A pastor in northern India was forced to flee his village after police detained him, his wife and three children, one of whom is 2 years old, and tortured him for sharing the Gospel.
Christians are being arrested and imprisoned in several cases after being unjustly accused of breaching Uttar Pradesh's anti-conversion law.
Christians account for less than five percent of the population in India, and Release International warns that they are increasingly being attacked.
“We request prayers for the accusations and false cases to be cleared. I know and fully believe that even if the world is against us, the Lord is on our side. He is a faithful God, and He is always there for us.”
According to a Delhi-based interdenominational Christian organization that fights for the rights of Christian minorities, 154 incidents of violence against Christians were reported in 17 states in the first half of 2021.
