Chhattisgarh, India, August 17 (CDN) — After receiving a letter from Hindu extremists demanding the closure of Grace Church in Dhamtari, district government officials on Aug. 6 stopped the church’s worship service, warning those present that they could be attacked if they continued to ....
NEW DELHI, August 5 (CDN) — Four months after a recent convert to Christianity from Islam in eastern India’s West Bengal state was stripped and beaten, about 50 Muslim extremists yesterday disrupted a prayer meeting held in her home, threatening to burn it down if she did not .... Orissa, India, July 25 (CDN) — Hindu extremists on July 14 summoned three Christian families of Missionary Grace Fellowship and demanded that they abandon Christ or face a social boycott in Lathikata, Banapur. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that a ....
Andhra Pradesh, India, July 8 (CDN) — Pastor Johnny Lazarus, 50, was beaten by Hindu extremists on June 28 at Bollepally village in Bhongir Mandal. The All India Christian Council (AICC) reported that one extremist, Malla Reddy, accused Pastor Lazarus of performing witchcraft on him. ....
NEW DELHI, July 5 (CDN) — Hindu extremists in Pratapgarh, Rajasthan have threatened to kill a pastor after beating his family and violating an agreement to stop attacking them, the pastor said. Pastor Shantilal Ninama of Believers Church told Compass that the Hindu ....
NEW DELHI, June 20 (CDN) — A Catholic and two Hindu visitors with leprosy in Karnataka state were freed on bail on Tuesday (June 14), two days after they were beaten by suspected Hindu extremists and arrested on charges of forcible conversion. Police arrested the ....
Kerala, India, June 17 (CDN) — Three U.S. citizens along with two unidentified men from Kottayam district were detained on June 13 by Alappuzha police after a Hindu extremist group filed a complaint against them of forcible conversion in Thrikkunnappuzha. The Global Council of ....
Karnataka, India, June 7 (CDN) — State police on June 5 arrested Christians based on a false complaint by Hindu nationalists of forcible conversion in Doddamma Layout, Hulimavu village, Bangalore. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that at around 10 a.m. police ....
Uttar Pradesh, India, May 20 (CDN) — On May 8 in Baskeria, Sonbhadra district, Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh threatened to beat a pastor if he conducts future worship meetings in the area. The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) reported that Hindu extremists ....
Maharashtra, India, April 29 (CDN) — A group of Hindu extremists on April 24 disrupted the Easter celebrations of Christians at Dasturipada in Palgha, attacking them with clubs. One unidentified tribal Christian sustained a fractured bone in his hand, reported the Global Council of ....
NEW DELHI, April 29 (CDN) — An attempt by police in India’s Madhya Pradesh to survey the state’s Christian minority came to light this month and left church leaders calling for a federal investigation into alleged religious profiling. Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the ....
Karnataka, India, April 25 (CDN) — Police forced a pastor to stop leading worship services after Hindu extremists on April 22 disrupted his Good Friday service in Nandi Tavere village, Davengere district, and falsely accused him of forcible conversion. The Global Council of Indian ....
NEW DELHI, April 22 (CDN) — Hindu extremists beat a pastor and evangelist unconscious in front of his sons earlier this month in Madhya Pradesh state. Ramesh Devda, 30, from Dhadhniya, Meghnagar district, said he was attacked on April 4 at about 11 a.m. after leading a prayer ....
Karnataka, India, April 15 (CDN) — Police on April 10 arrested a pastor and other Christians of the New India Church in Mysore after some 25 Hindu extremists from the Sreeram Sena attacked their Sunday service, accusing them of forcible conversions, reported the Mathrubhumi daily. ....
Karnataka, India, April 8 (CDN) — Four Christians, including a police constable, were beaten on April 1 in Madikeri district on allegations of “religious conversion abetment,” as if conversion were illegal in India. Daijiworld Media Network reported that K. Nidugane villagers were ....
NEW DELHI, March 25 (CDN) — Right-wing terrorists played a key role in attacking and killing Christians in Orissa and Karnataka states in 2008, one of the Hindu extremist suspects in anti-Muslim bomb blasts has told investigators, leading to renewed demands for a probe by ....
NEW DELHI, March 4 (CDN) — Hindu extremists have attacked Koya tribal Christians in villages in a remote area of Orissa state at least 15 times since Dec. 8, 2010, Christian leaders said. In the latest incident in Murliguda, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from ....
NEW DELHI, February 17 (CDN) — A pastor in India’s Rajasthan state who was stripped, beaten and wounded by Hindu extremists earlier this month is still traumatized, while police have yet to investigate due to family fears of further violence, security and hospital officials said. ....
NEW DELHI, February 9 (CDN) — Responding to a petition by the state Catholic Bishops Conference, the High Court of Madhya Pradesh yesterday directed the state government to ensure the safety of Christians during a massive Hindu nationalist rally scheduled tomorrow through ....
NEW DELHI, February 8 (CDN) — Christians in India’s southern state of Karnataka are preparing to file a court petition against a panel that blamed a series of anti-Christian attacks in 2008 on conversions from Hinduism. In Mangalore, which bore the brunt of Hindu extremist ....
Madhya Pradesh, India, February 7 (CDN) — Hindu extremists on Jan. 31 attacked a pastor, vandalized his church building and beat members of his congregation in Lall Barra village, Lalgarh Balaghat district, reported the Global Council of Indian Christians. At around 2 p.m. Pastor Mahandra ....
NEW DELHI, January 28 (CDN) — India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday (Jan. 25) rejected the bail granted to Hindu nationalist Orissa state legislator Manoj Pradhan following his conviction in the murder of a Christian, Parikhita Nayak. Pradhan, of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ....
NEW DELHI, January 21 (CDN) — Relatives of a pastor who was found dead in a secluded area in eastern Orissa state’s Kandhamal district last week have accused local police of a cover-up. The body of Saul Pradhan, a 45-year-old independent pastor whose house was burned by Hindu ....
Madhya Pradesh, India, December 31 (CDN) — Hindu nationalists on Dec. 26 beat a Christian distributing gospel tracts in Damoh Naka at Jabalpur. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that at about 3 p.m. Devanand Dandale was distributing literature when Hindu extremists from ....
NEW DELHI, December 30 (CDN) — Christians in India faced a spike in attacks in the past decade, suffering more than 130 assaults a year since 2001, with figures far surpassing that in 2007 and 2008. This year Christians suffered at least 149 violent attacks, according ....
Punjab, India, December 1 (CDN) — Hindu extremists on Nov. 14 beat a Christian in Moti Nagar, Ludhiana, threatening to harm him and his family if they attended Sunday worship. A source told Compass that a Hindu identified only as Munna had argued with a Christian identified only as ....
NEW DELHI, November 11 (CDN) — More than two years after losing relatives and property in anti-Christian violence, there is no sense of relief among survivors in India’s Orissa state, as many are still ostracized and pressured to “return” to Hinduism, according to a private ....
Karnataka, India, October 29 (CDN) — Police arrested Pastor Muthyalan Paul on Oct. 26 in Nelamangala, Bangalore, after Muslim radicals barged into a prayer meeting, accused him of forceful conversion, tore Bibles and damaged household items. The Global Council of Indian Christians ....
NEW DELHI, October 13 (CDN) — Police in a south Indian state known for turning hostile to minority Christians in recent years have arrested two suspected Hindu nationalists for beating four pastors and striking the wife of one of them in the stomach, killing her unborn child. ....
Tamil Nadu, India, September 30 (CDN) — Police detained evangelist V.K. Williams and seven other Christians after Hindu extremists disrupted their evangelistic meeting on Sept. 29 in Theni, according to the Global Council of Indian Christians. The extremists filed a complaint against the ....
NEW DELHI, September 28 (CDN) — Family members of a Christian worker who was found dead in a Muslim area in Jharkhand state a day after the Islamic Eid festival said they suspect he may have been murdered by local residents. The body of Shravan Kumar, who had worked with ....
NEW DELHI, September 10 (CDN) — A Hindu nationalist legislator was arrested yesterday after a court pronounced him guilty of playing a major role in the murder of a Christian during anti-Christian carnage in Orissa state’s Kandhamal district in August 2008. The Fast Track Court ....
NEW DELHI, September 9 (CDN) — Suspected Hindu nationalists in an area of Orissa state still tense from 2008 anti-Christian violence beat a Catholic father of seven until he fell unconscious on Aug. 20, the 47-year-old victim said. Subhash Nayak told Compass that four ....
NEW DELHI, September 6 (CDN) — A visually impaired Christian and his friend accused drunken Buddhists of abducting and assaulting them last week after the blind volunteer distributed relief material in a Buddhist-majority town in a region of India devastated by recent floods. ....
Chhattisgarh, India, August 31 (CDN) — Police in Sivaho Dhamtari on Aug. 29 arrested three Christians after Hindu extremists filed a complaint against them of luring people to convert to Christianity by offering them money and “false hope.” A source reported that the extremists had ....
NEW DELHI, August 25 (CDN) — The family of a 20-year-old Christian found dead last week in the northern state of Rajasthan suspects he was killed by Hindu nationalists, though police claim he died of cardiac arrest. Narayan Lal, a farmer from Hameerpura Patar village ....
NEW DELHI, August 25 (CDN) — Nearly two years after large-scale anti-Christian violence broke out in India’s Kandhamal district, Orissa state, a team working against human trafficking on Aug. 9 rescued a 16-year-old Christian girl – one of at least 60 people sold into slavery ....
NEW DELHI, July 30 (CDN) — Less than a month after Orissa state legislator Manoj Pradhan was sentenced to seven years of prison for his part in anti-Christian mob violence in 2008, he was released on bail pending his appeal. Along with fellow Hindu nationalist ....
NEW DELHI, July 27 (CDN) — Two evangelists said they survived an attack in Balaghat district, Madhya Pradesh by playing dead when suspected Hindu extremists on July 20 surrounded them and severely beat them. The six assailants accused Mahindra Kharoley, 20, and ....
NEW DELHI, July 2 (CDN) — Christians in Orissa state had mixed feelings about the sentencing on Tuesday (June 29) of state legislator Manoj Pradhan to seven years in prison for causing grievous hurt and rioting – but not for murder. “Pradhan is not convicted of ....
Karnataka, India, June 30 (CDN) — Hindu extremists on June 23 beat two pastors, seriously injuring them in Chandapura, Anekal. The Evangelical Fellowship of India reported that after pastors Shidu Kurialose and Nithya Vachanam of Bethel Assembly of God Church conducted a Christian ....
NEW DELHI, June 14 (CDN) — A pastor in Assam state was murdered and cremated without being identified last month before family members learned of his death when they saw a photo of his body in a newspaper. The body of Son Englang, 35, was recovered alongside National Highway ....
Karnataka, India, June 1 (CDN) — Hindu nationalists on May 27 falsely accused a pastor of forcible conversion in Rajanpura village, Hassan district, after disrupting a worship service. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that the intolerant Hindus also warned ....
NEW DELHI, May 20 (CDN) — Hindu nationalist organizations in Madhya Pradesh state have declared their intentions to rid Mandla district of all Christian influence by starting preparations for a large “reconversion” event next year. A similar event in Dangs district, Gujarat ....
NEW DELHI, May 11 (CDN) — The gruesome nature of the May 2 murder of an evangelist in Bihar state who had no enmity with anyone has led area Christians to suspect anti-Christian motives. The mutilated body of Ravi Murmu, 32, was found in Jamalpur, Munger district, with the ....
Uttarakhand, India, April 30 (CDN) — Police arrested Pastor Jaswant Singh after extremists from the Hindu Jagrang Manch (Hindu Awareness Platform) filed a complaint against him of forceful conversion on April 25 in Rooria, Haridwar. A source told Compass that the extremists disrupted ....
NEW DELHI, April 27 (CDN) — Hindu extremists raided Christian events in India’s Madhya Pradesh state this month, leaving a visiting theology student dead and several other Christians injured. The body of 23-year-old Amit Gilbert was recovered from a water well 25 feet from ....
NEW DELHI, April 2 (CDN) — Due in part to intimidation of witnesses in Kandhamal district, a judge this week granted a change of venue for the trial of men accused of gang-raping a nun during anti-Christian attacks in Orissa in 2008. The trial will be transferred from ....
Orissa, India, March 31 (CDN) — 14 Christians, including two pastors, were arrested on March 29 for converting to Christianity without official permit in Orissa’s Mayurbhanj district. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that the arrests came after a police complaint ....
Madhya Pradesh, India, March 31 (CDN) — Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) extremists accompanied by police officials on March 28 disrupted Christian worship in Raksha Nagar, Ranjhi, Jabalpur. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that at 10:30 a.m. about 45 extremists from the ....
NEW DELHI, March 22 (CDN) — Christians in Karnataka state are under an unprecedented wave of Christian persecution, having faced more than 1,000 attacks in 500 days, according to an independent investigation by a former judge of the Karnataka High Court. The spate began ....
NEW DELHI, March 3 (CDN) — Attacks on Christians last month in Punjab state following protests against banners depicting Jesus drinking and smoking were eerily similar to the anti-Christian violence in Orissa state in 2007 and 2008, according to a fact-finding mission. ....
Punjab, India, March 1 (CDN) — Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena on Feb. 20 beat Christians and vandalized two churches in Batala after a protest against an objectionable picture of Christ. Christians had noticed the picture posted as part of a composite poster ....
NEW DELHI, February 8 (CDN) — A delegation from the European Union concluded a “fruitful” trip to India’s violence-torn Orissa state on Friday (Feb. 5) amid a swirl of protests by Hindu nationalist groups and cries of injustice by Christians. The delegation was able to ....
NEW DELHI, February 4 (CDN) — Karnataka state recorded the highest number of anti-Christian attacks in India last year, and it is keeping pace this year. Christians in Karnataka are being attacked “at rapid regularity” and “with near impunity,” and it is “a serious ....
NEW DELHI, January 29 (CDN) — Weary of international scrutiny of troubled Kandhamal district in Orissa state, officials yesterday finally allowed delegates from the European Union (EU) to visit affected areas – as long as they do no fact-finding. A team of 13 diplomats ....
Karnataka, India, January 7 (CDN) — Police led by Hindu extremists accused a pastor without basis of forceful conversion, reprimanded him for praying without government permission and stopped the Sunday worship of his India People Ministry church on Dec. 27 in Koppa. The Global ....
NEW DELHI, December 31 (CDN) — After unprecedented large-scale attacks on Christians in the previous two years, 2009 brought hardly any respite as the minority faith faced an average of more than three violent attacks a week. There were at least 152 attacks on Christians in ....
Andhra Pradesh, India, December 23 (CDN) — Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Dec. 20 seriously injured a pastor and beat his wife in Decarakonda, Nalgonda. At about 7:30 p.m., Pastor R. Timothy, his wife Nirmala and their child were on their way to a neighboring ....
NEW DELHI, December 22 (CDN) — With at least two violent attacks and alleged “reconversion” of over 1,700 Christians in the week leading up to Christmas, a sense of fear is growing among India’s minority Christian community. On Sunday (Dec. 20), Hindu extremists attacked a ....
NEW DELHI, December 11 (CDN) — Police in Orissa state have arrested an official of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for allegedly leading an attack that ended in the rape of a Catholic nun during last year’s anti-Christian mayhem in Kandhamal district. ....
NEW DELHI, December 7 (CDN) — Christian leaders in India have called for a special investigations team to counter the shoddy or corrupt police investigations into anti-Christian violence in Orissa state in August-September 2008. Of the 100 cases handled by two-fast ....
Karnataka, India, November 30 (CDN) — Police on Nov. 24 detained three Christians after Hindu extremists falsely accused them of forced conversion in Raghavendra Colony, Madugere, Tumkur district. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that 35 to 40 extremists barged ....
Chhattisgarh, India, November 17 (CDN) — Police on Nov. 8 detained Christians based on false allegations of “allurement to conversion” in Yadunandan Nagar, near Bilaspur. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that at 8:45 p.m., nearly 150 locals stormed the house where a prayer ....
NEW DELHI, November 11 (CDN) — Following six acquittals last week in trials for those accused of the 2008 anti-Christian violence in India’s Orissa state and the release on bail of a key suspect, Christians are losing heart to strive for justice, according to a prosecuting ....
PUNE, India, November 5 (CDN) — After the recent arrests of numerous Hindu terrorists for exploding bombs, authorities increasingly view Hindu rightwing extremists as a threat not only to Muslim and Christian minorities but also to national security. Historically Hindu ....
UTTARAKHAND, India, November 3 (CDN) — Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal on Oct. 25 disrupted the Sunday worship of a Ministry of the Gospel service in Rudrapur and accused the pastor of forceful conversion. The Evangelical Fellowship of India reported that the extremists barged into ....
PUNE, India, October 29 (CDN) — After more than a decade of severe persecution, India’s Christian minority is growing increasingly concerned over the mushrooming of newer and deadlier Hindu extremist groups. Gone are the days when Christians had to watch out only for the ....
MUMBAI, India, October 27 (CDN) — Hundreds of tribal Christians and adherents of aboriginal religion from villages in Maharashtra state were reportedly “reconverted” to Hinduism yesterday in the Mumbai suburb of Thane at a ceremony led by a Hindu nationalist cleric. Swami ....
NEW DELHI, October 21 (CDN) — A group of Hindu extremists in Madhya Pradesh earlier this month beat a pastor unconscious and chewed off part of his ear, pelting him with stones after he fainted from the pain. Paasu Ninama told Compass that the six attackers first lured ....
NEW DELHI, October 14 (CDN) — Since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in Madhya Pradesh in December 2003, Christians in the state have suffered increased attacks and concerted efforts to tarnish their image, church leaders said. Before the BJP ....
NEW DELHI, September 30 (CDN) — Only 24 people have been convicted a year after anti-Christian mayhem took place in India’s Orissa state, while the number of acquittals has risen to 95, compounding the sense of helplessness and frustration among surviving Christians. Dr. John ....
Uttar Pradesh, India, September 29 (CDN) — Hindu extremists chased a pastor into hiding on Sept. 19 in Lucknow. The All India Christian Council (AICC) reported that hardliners from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad ( World Hindu Council or VHP), Bharatiya Janata Party ....
NEW DELHI, September 28 (CDN) — Suspected Hindu extremists struck a pastor with what appeared to be sharp-edged metal rods on Sept. 20 in Andhra Pradesh state, leaving him unconscious and profusely bleeding on a village road. At least three unidentified men attacked ....
NEW DELHI, September 21 (CDN) — With at least 43 incidents of anti-Christian violence, Karnataka saw more attacks on Christians in the first eight months of this year than any other state in India, according to advocacy organizations. The figure compares with 35 attacks on ....
NEW DELHI, September 14 (CDN) — Hindu nationalists are calling the helicopter-crash death of Andhra Pradesh state’s chief minister, a Christian, divine punishment for his so-called conversion agenda. The same allegation of a “conversion agenda” fueled persecution in the state for ....
NEW DELHI, September 10 (CDN) — A fast-track court in Orissa state on Monday (Sept. 7) sentenced six people to four years of “rigorous imprisonment” and a fine of 2,000 rupees (US$41) each for their role in anti-Christian violence in the state’s Kandhamal district a year ....
MUMBAI, India, September 2 (CDN) — Karnataka police accompanied by 10 Hindu extremists on Friday (Aug. 28) arrested a Christian operator of a boys’ hostel after the extremists accused him and another Christian of offering food, shelter, education and future job prospects as an ....
NEW DELHI, September 1 (CDN) — Hindus opposed to a pastor in a village in Madhya Pradesh, India have falsely charged him and three other Christians in the murder of a young man killed in a gang fight between two clans, according to area Christians. Pastor Kamlesh Tahed, 32, ....
September 1 (CDN) — West Bengal, August 31 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu hardliners have again attacked the Christian community in Bishnupur and threatened to kill them if they continue to practice their faith. About 15 Hindu extremists armed with knives and heavy rods ....
West Bengal, India, August 31 (CDN) — Hindu hardliners have again attacked the Christian community in Bishnupur and threatened to kill them if they continue to practice their faith. About 15 Hindu extremists armed with knives and heavy rods of bamboo and iron shouted anti-Christian ....
August 31 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 31 (Compass Direct News) – Hindus opposed to a pastor in a village in Madhya Pradesh, India have falsely charged him and three other Christians in the murder of a young man killed in a gang fight between two clans, according to ....
NEW DELHI, August 22 (CDN) — One year after India’s worst-ever attack on Christians, which began after the killing of a Hindu leader on Aug. 23 in Orissa state last year, churches across the country will fast and pray for a peace that remains elusive.The Catholic Bishops’ ....
August 22 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 22 (Compass Direct News) – One year after India’s worst-ever attack on Christians, which began after Maoists killed a Hindu leader on Aug. 23 in Orissa state last year, churches across the country will fast and pray for a peace ....
NEW DELHI, August 18 (CDN) — Ahead of one-year remembrances of massive anti-Christian violence in the eastern state of Orissa, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has put India on its “Watch List” for the country’s violations of religious freedom, ....
August 18 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 18 (Compass Direct News) – Ahead of one-year remembrances of massive anti-Christian violence in the eastern state of Orissa, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has put India on its “Watch List” for the ....
MUMBAI, India, August 14 (CDN) — Hindu nationalist extremists attacked Christians attending teacher training in Dharwad district, Karnataka on Wednesday (Aug. 12), but when one of the attendees escaped and went to police, officers arrested eight pastors on baseless claims of ....
August 14 (CDN) — MUMBAI, India, Aug. 14 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu nationalist extremists attacked Christians attending teacher training in Dharwad district, Karnataka on Wednesday (Aug. 12), but when one of the attendees escaped and went to police, officers ....
August 4 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 3 (Compass Direct News) – The suspicious death of a 39-year-old priest in the southern state of Karnataka has further terrified Christians living in an area known for anti-Christian violence, but police indicate that they doubt it ....
NEW DELHI, August 3 (CDN) — The suspicious death of a 39-year-old priest in the southern state of Karnataka has further terrified Christians living in an area known for anti-Christian violence, but police indicate that they doubt it is a homicide. The body of the parish ....
August 1 (CDN) — Madhya Pradesh, July 31 (Compass Direct News) – As if conversion were illegal in India, nearly 50 Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) and Bajrang Dal activists on Sunday (July 26) stormed the compound of the Assembly of God Bethel ....
Madhya Pradesh, India, July 31 (CDN) — As if conversion were illegal in India, nearly 50 Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) and Bajrang Dal activists on Sunday (July 26) stormed the compound of the Assembly of God Bethel Church in Habibganj, Bhopal, accusing Christians of ....
NEW DELHI, July 14 (CDN) — Nearly 11 months after an unprecedented wave of anti-Christian attacks shook the eastern state of Orissa, a reign of terror continues in the area as the former rioters issue death threats to witnesses.Of the more than 750 cases filed in various ....
July 14 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, July 14 (Compass Direct News) – Nearly 11 months after an unprecedented wave of anti-Christian attacks shook the eastern state of Orissa, a reign of terror continues in the area as the former rioters issue death threats to witnesses. Of ....
July 11 (CDN) — Madhya Pradesh, July 10 (Compass Direct News) – About 50 Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bajrang Dal ( Youth Wing of the World Hindu Council) chanting, “Jai Shri Ram [Praise lord Ram]” barged into Beersheba Church and ....
Madhya Pradesh, India, July 10 (CDN) — About 50 Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bajrang Dal ( Youth Wing of the World Hindu Council) chanting, “Jai Shri Ram [Praise lord Ram]” barged into Beersheba Church and attacked pastor Kuldeep Daniel, his family and church ....
NEW DELHI, June 29 (CDN) — The Indian government is silent on why it refused visas to allow members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to visit troubled Orissa state, but there are indications that it was ducking protests from Hindu nationalist ....
June 29 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, June 29 (Compass Direct News) – The Indian government is silent on why it refused visas to allow members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to visit troubled Orissa state, but there are indications that it ....
NEW DELHI, May 21 (CDN) — Christians in India are heaving a sigh of relief after the rout of a Hindu nationalist party in national and state assembly elections in Orissa state, a scene of anti-Christian arson and carnage last year. The ruling centrist party won a ....
May 21 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, May 21 (Compass Direct News) – Christians in India are heaving a sigh of relief after the rout of a Hindu nationalist party in national and state assembly elections in Orissa state, a scene of anti-Christian arson and carnage last year. ....
Karnataka, India, May 19 (CDN) — Police on May 12 arrested Christians in Chennarayapatna, Hassan district on trumped-up charges of fraudulent conversions after a group of Hindu extremists attacked them. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that at 3 p.m. nearly ....
May 19 (CDN) — Karnataka, May 19 (Compass Direct News) – Police on May 12 arrested Christians in Chennarayapatna, Hassan district on trumped-up charges of fraudulent conversions after a group of Hindu extremists attacked them. The Global Council of Indian ....
May 19 (CDN) — Karnataka, May 19 (Compass Direct News) – Police on May 12 arrested Christians in Chennarayapatna, Hassan district on trumped-up charges of fraudulent conversions after a group of Hindu extremists attacked them. The Global Council of Indian ....
May 1 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, May 1 (Compass Direct News) – With elections underway in India, its 2.3 percent Christian minority – which faced a deadly spate of attacks in the eastern state of Orissa last year – is praying for a secular party to come to power. ....
NEW DELHI, April 30 (CDN) — With elections underway in India, its 2.3 percent Christian minority – which faced a deadly spate of attacks in the eastern state of Orissa last year – is praying for a secular party to come to power. Along with the Muslim community, ....
April 30 (CDN) — Chhattisgarh, April 30 (Compass Direct News) – On April 20 a group of Sikhs in Dalli Rajhara, Durg district attacked Christian pastors who had converted from the Sikh religion. A source told Compass the pastors were guest speakers from New Delhi at ....
Chhattisgarh, India, April 29 (CDN) — On April 20 a group of Sikhs in Dalli Rajhara, Durg district attacked Christian pastors who had converted from the Sikh religion. A source told Compass the pastors were guest speakers from New Delhi at a Christian event organized by Christian ....
April 1 (CDN) — Rajasthan, March 31 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) on March 21 attacked Bible students and staff members of the Believers Church and demanded 10,000 rupees (US$193) from them in ....
Rajasthan, India, March 31 (CDN) — Hindu extremists from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) on March 21 attacked Bible students and staff members of the Believers Church and demanded 10,000 rupees (US$193) from them in Udaipur. A church source said the Christians ....
Andhra Pradesh, India, March 19 (CDN) — Hindu extremists armed with sticks assaulted a pastor, seriously injuring him, on March 11 in Medak. About 30 extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh stopped pastor Ezra Krupanamdam as he was returning from a prayer meeting at the home of a ....
March 19 (CDN) — Andhra Pradesh, March 19 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists armed with sticks assaulted a pastor, seriously injuring him, on March 11 in Medak. About 30 extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh stopped pastor Ezra Krupanamdam as he was ....
March 10 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, March 10 (Compass Direct News) – In an effort to stop conversions to Christianity in the eastern state of Bihar, a 25-year-old ailing man on Sunday (March 8) exploded a crude bomb in a church and shot the pastor. Police Inspector Hari ....
NEW DELHI, March 10 (CDN) — In an effort to stop conversions to Christianity in the eastern state of Bihar, a 25-year-old ailing man on Sunday (March 8) exploded a crude bomb in a church and shot the pastor. Police Inspector Hari Krishna Mandal told Compass that the attacker, ....
NEW DELHI, March 2 (CDN) — The Hindu nationalist government in the southern state of Karnataka, which recorded the second highest number of attacks on Christians last year, is planning to introduce the kind of “anti-conversion” law that has provided the pretext for ....
March 2 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, March 2 (Compass Direct News) – The Hindu nationalist government in the southern state of Karnataka, which recorded the second highest number of attacks on Christians last year, is planning to introduce the kind of “anti-conversion” law ....
February 28 (CDN) — Madhya Pradesh, February 27 (Compass Direct News) – Police on Feb. 25 arrested the Rev. Venkata Rao Paulose in connection with the sale of a book said to hurt the religious feelings of Hindus; the book was sold near a Christian conference Rev. ....
Madhya Pradesh, India, February 28 (CDN) — Police on Feb. 25 arrested the Rev. Venkata Rao Paulose in connection with the sale of a book said to hurt the religious feelings of Hindus; the book was sold near a Christian conference Rev. Paulose organized in January in Sanjay Nagar Colony, ....
NEW DELHI, February 26 (CDN) — Family members of a Christian found murdered last week in the Pandagadu area of Orissa state’s Kandhamal district said they believe the killers were Hindu nationalists such as those responsible for more than two months of violent anti-Christian ....
February 26 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 25 (Compass Direct News) – Family members of a Christian found murdered last week in the Pandagadu area of Orissa state’s Kandhamal district said they believe the killers were Hindu nationalists such as those responsible for more ....
February 18 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 18 (Compass Direct News) – In the wake of anti-Christian violence in Orissa state last year, hard-line Hindus in Kandhamal district have forced nearly half of 40 Christian families in one village to convert under threat of death, ....
NEW DELHI, February 18 (CDN) — In the wake of anti-Christian violence in Orissa state last year, hard-line Hindus in Kandhamal district have forced nearly half of 40 Christian families in one village to convert under threat of death, area Christians said. Bareka village resident ....
NEW DELHI, February 3 (CDN) — Orissa police on Thursday (Jan. 29) filed preliminary charges against 10 men in the rape of a nun during anti-Christian violence in Orissa last August. The charges were filed at sessions court of Balliguda block in Kandhamal district, where violence ....
February 3 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 3 (Compass Direct News) – Orissa police on Thursday (Jan. 29) filed preliminary charges against 10 men in the rape of a nun during anti-Christian violence in Orissa last August. A native of Dhama area in Sambalpur district of ....
January 31 (CDN) — Maharashtra, January 30 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists on Jan. 26 disrupted a baptism and thrashed believers at Gangapur Dam, Nashik district. The Times of India reported that as members of the Navjivan Fellowship Church were conducting a ....
Maharashtra, India, January 31 (CDN) — Hindu extremists on Jan. 26 disrupted a baptism and thrashed believers at Gangapur Dam, Nashik district. The Times of India reported that as members of the Navjivan Fellowship Church were conducting a baptism ceremony at the dam, a group of 10 to 12 ....
December 19 (CDN) — Karnataka, December 19 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal on Dec. 14 attacked a Christmas program of Christian social organization Helping Hands and accused the director of forcible conversion in Bangarapet, Kolar. The ....
December 3 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, December 3 (Compass Direct News) – Christians in Orissa state are anticipating Christmas with fear as Hindu extremists have called for a state-wide bandh, or forced shut-down on all sectors of society, on Dec. 25 – a move that could ....
November 18 (CDN) — Karnataka, November 18 (Compass Direct News) – Police on Nov. 16 arrested a pastor and charged him with “hurting religious sentiments” in Vangasandra, Hosur Road, Bangalore, after a mob of Hindu extremists stormed into his house church service and ....
November 5 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, November 5 (Compass Direct News) – Terrified Christians ravaged by more than two months of violence in Orissa state’s Kandhamal district braced for more carnage as suspected Maoists today gunned down a local worker of the Hindu extremist ....
October 31 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, October 31 (Compass Direct News) – More than 3,000 people today attended the funeral in Bhubaneswar, Orissa of a Catholic priest who died on Tuesday (Oct. 28) from injuries sustained in anti-Christian violence that began in August. Father ....
October 31 (CDN) — Kerala, October 31 (Compass Direct News) – Suspected Hindu extremists burned down a school building run by a church on Oct. 16 in Kuravilangad. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that the main building of St. Mary Higher Secondary ....
October 20 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, October 20 (Compass Direct News) – A paramilitary soldier assigned to protect Christians from Hindu violence in Kandhamal district, Orissa was mutilated and killed by a mob in Sisapanga village on Oct. 13. The body of the Central Reserve ....
October 13 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, October 13 (Compass Direct News) – The Christian community of Chhattisgarh state is rattled after a gruesome mob attack and torture in Surguja district. At midnight on Oct. 3 in Dumarbhavna village, Hindu nationalists broke open the door ....
October 10 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, October 10 (Compass Direct News) – After police in the eastern state of Orissa confirmed this week that Maoists killed Hindu nationalist leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a Hindu extremist group circulated allegedly forged documents in ....
October 4 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, October 3 (Compass Direct News) – At least two more Christians were killed today in Orissa state’s Kandhamal district after Hindu extremists this week set fire to nearly 400 homes there and in Boudh district. A third man succumbed to axe ....
September 30 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, September 30 (Compass Direct News) – A Christian couple was found murdered, a woman killed, numerous houses and churches burned and low-intensity bombs exploded at relief camps in the past week in Orissa state’s Kandhamal district, where ....
September 24 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, September 24 (Compass Direct News) – The unprecedented wave of anti-Christian attacks that began a month ago continued in the past week with more incidents of murder, rape and arson, mostly in the eastern state of Orissa and southern ....
September 19 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, September 19 (Compass Direct News) – After three weeks of widespread attacks on Christians and their property in Orissa state and other parts of the country, the federal government finally warned two states that their failure to prevent ....
September 18 (CDN) — Karnataka, September 17 (Compass Direct News) – A mob of about 300 people attacked and torched a Christian prayer hall on Sept. 7 in Bada village, Davangere district just after prayers concluded at about 9 a.m., according to the The Hindu. The ....
September 17 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, September 16 (Compass Direct News) – A policeman was killed today, the body of another victim of Hindu extremist violence was discovered and more houses and churches were burned in Orissa state’s Kandhamal district even as anti-Christian ....
September 11 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, September 10 (Compass Direct News) – As tensions continued in the eastern state of Orissa, Hindu nationalist groups intensified attacks on churches and Christian institutions in the southern state of Karnataka. Hindu extremists leveled ....
September 9 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, September 8 (Compass Direct News) – Still reeling from violence in Orissa state, India’s Christians suffered major blows in two other states over the weekend. As the Global Council of Indian Christians revised its estimate of deaths from ....
September 9 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, September 9 (Compass Direct News) – The spate of anti-Christian violence that began following the killing of a Hindu leader on Aug. 23 in Orissa’s Kandhamal district continued yesterday despite a stream of meetings by Christian and rights ....
September 5 (CDN) — BHUBANESWAR, September 5 (Compass Direct News) – Asserting that most area Hindus are tolerant, peaceable and helped protect them, victims of ongoing anti-Christian violence in the eastern state of Orissa blamed the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu ....
September 4 (CDN) — BHUBANESWAR, India, September 4 (Compass Direct News) – Christian victims of Hindu extremist violence who have fled to the capital of the eastern state of Orissa said state police have been mere spectators as mayhem continued a 12th consecutive day. ....
September 1 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, September 1 (Compass Direct News) – A Maoist group today claimed responsibility for killing Hindu extremist leader Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his disciples in Orissa state on August 23, saying that fanatical Hindus’ claims that ....
August 30 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 29 (Compass Direct News) – Sources in the government of Orissa said in an India media report today that they believe that Christians were not behind the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) leader Laxmanananda ....
August 27 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 27 (Compass Direct News) – Three more deaths were reported today in the eastern state of Orissa, where a spate of anti-Christian violence began after suspected Maoists murdered Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of ....
August 26 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 26 (Compass Direct News) – At least 18 people are confirmed dead in more than 90 incidents of violence against Christians since suspected Maoists murdered Hindu leader Swamiji Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others on Saturday ....
August 25 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 25 (Compass Direct News) – The killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) leader Swamiji Laxmanananda Saraswati and four associates by suspected Maoists on Saturday night (August 23) led to renewed anti-Christian ....
August 22 (CDN) — Karnataka, August 21 (Compass Direct News) – About 100 Hindu extremists disrupted an August 17 worship service, attacked Christians and destroyed church furniture and music instruments in Davengere. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) ....
August 19 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 19 (Compass Direct News) – Christian leaders in Andhra Pradesh suspect the grisly murder of a Catholic priest was the work of Hindu extremists and that police have prematurely ruled out that possibility. The battered body of Father ....
July 29 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, July 29 (Compass Direct News) – As elections approach in Madhya Pradesh state, Christian leaders say their community is increasingly targeted as part of an effort by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to consolidate Hindu nationalist ....
July 26 (CDN) — Orissa, July 25 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists belonging to the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on July 23 tonsured and forcibly “reconverted” Christians to Hinduism in Kantapala village, Jajpur district. The Global Council of ....
July 17 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, July 17 (Compass Direct News) – The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat state has disclosed that there were only three complaints of alleged “forcible” conversions in the state in the last 10 years, and only two ....
July 1 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, July 1 (Compass Direct News) – At least 36 Christian families whose houses were burned during Christmas season violence in Orissa’s Kandhamal district have been evicted from their damaged homes. The tribal (aboriginal) Christian families ....
June 27 (CDN) — Uttarakhand, June 27 (Compass Direct News) – Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) extremists belonging to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on June 22 attacked a Christian prayer meeting, beating participants and the ....
June 20 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, June 20 (Compass Direct News) – Preliminary findings of an ongoing study on gender violence shows that female victims of attacks in Orissa state last Christmas season are struggling with post-traumatic disorders. The study, conducted by ....
June 13 (CDN) — Maharashtra, June 12 (Compass Direct News) – In Chandrapur, Hindu extremists from the Shiv Sena on June 1 disrupted a worship service, burned Bibles and pressured a pastor to give a false statement saying that he was forcibly converting people. The ....
June 11 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, June 11 (Compass Direct News) – Still struggling to rebuild their homes and lives after suffering large-scale attacks last Christmas season, Christians in Orissa state’s Kandhamal district continue to face ostracism and threats from Hindu ....
May 29 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, May 29 (Compass Direct News) – A well-known Hindu nationalist leader from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be sworn in tomorrow as the chief minister of Karnataka state, where anti-Christian attacks have been rising since 2006. News ....
May 21 (CDN) — Karnataka, May 21 (Compass Direct News) – Police on May 4 arrested a pastor on charges of luring Hindu villagers to convert to Christianity in Karnataka state’s Hubli district. Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) ....
April 30 (CDN) — Andhra Pradesh, April 30 (Compass Direct News) – About 50 Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on April 15 beat two independent pastors in Devarakonda village, Nalgonda district, Andhra Pradesh. Attacked for ....
April 29 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, April 29 (Compass Direct News) – The Hindu nationalist government in Rajasthan state has closed a police investigation into a televised attack on pastor Walter Masih a year ago today after withdrawing the more serious charges against the ....
April 28 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, April 28 (Compass Direct News) – The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat state has implemented an “anti-conversion” law passed in 2003, increasing Christians’ fears that it will open the door to false accusations by Hindu ....
April 15 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, April 15 (Compass Direct News) – Believing that his brother’s Christian faith was black magic that resulted in the death of his teenage daughter, a tribal villager in Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh state on April 3 killed Thakur Sing Bhil ....
March 31 (CDN) — Jammu and Kashmir, March 31 (Compass Direct News) – Peerzada Shakeel, a convert to Christianity from Islam in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir state, was arrested along with his wife Arifa on March 26 on false charges of forced conversions after he ....
March 27 (CDN) — REWA, India, March 27 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists in a village in Madhya Pradesh who have harassed and threatened local Christians beat the grandparents and aunt of a 15-year-old girl last weekend when the Christian family refused to ....
March 25 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, March 25 (Compass Direct News) – Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) extremists stormed two Easter Sunday services and beat at least 16 Christians, including two pastors, in Karnataka’s state capital of Bangalore and in Shimoga district. A mob ....
March 24 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, March 24 (Compass Direct News) – The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan state on Thursday (March 20) passed a new “anti-conversion” bill with more stringent and arbitrary provisions than previous legislation that was ....
March 21 (CDN) — DHAKA, March 21 (Compass Direct News) – A group of Christians from India are languishing in a Bangladeshi prison even after finishing a three-month jail term for unknowingly overstepping an unmarked border between the two countries as they ....
March 14 (CDN) — SHIMLA, India, March 14 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists recently carried out a well-planned scheme to lure to a temple and forcibly convert scores of Christians from villages around this capital city of Himachal Pradesh state. Offering ....
March 12 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, March 11 (Compass Direct News) – The Gujarat state government yesterday revoked the “anti-conversion” amendment bill in an apparent attempt to implement an older version of the legislation passed in 2003 that has remained dormant. Ruled ....
March 4 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, March 4 (Compass Direct News) – A government body in Communist-ruled Kerala state has recommended banning of religious worship and use of religious inscriptions on the walls of private schools that receive assistance from the state, a ....
March 3 (CDN) — BALAGHAT, India, March 3 (Compass Direct News) – Following a Hindu extremist attack on five Christians meeting in a home here on February 22, the Madhya Pradesh town of Balaghat witnessed another assault last Wednesday (February 27) when the newly ....
February 29 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 29 (Compass Direct News) – India’s national capital witnessed two incidents of anti-Christian violence this week, including an attack last night on a relief organization official by a large mob of Hindu extremists. In New Delhi’s ....
February 27 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 26 (Compass Direct News) – A group of around 30 Hindu extremists suspected to be from the Bajrang Dal, youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council), pelted a Catholic church with stones and vandalized vehicles of ....
February 25 (CDN) — INDORE, India, February 25 (Compass Direct News) – At least 125 Hindu extremists here yesterday attacked one of the oldest and best-known churches in Madhya Pradesh state, Masihi Mandir Church, brutally beating one of the fleeing members. The ....
February 20 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 20 (Compass Direct News) – Two Christians have died in refugee camps from injuries sustained in Christmas season violence against Christians in the Kandhamal district of Orissa state. According to Christian leaders, their deaths ....
February 1 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 1 (Compass Direct News) – With a strong presence in Orissa state’s Kandhamal district, Maoists are suspected of using recent violence in the area to recruit frustrated Christians and goad them into retaliating, Christian leaders ....
January 28 (CDN) — Karnataka, January 28 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu nationalist extremists belonging to the Bajrang Dal on January 17 attacked Baswamma Sangappa, 44, in Ullal, Mangalore Taluka, Karnataka for converting to Christianity, reported ....
January 23 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, January 23 (Compass Direct News) – Amid reports of forced conversion of Christians to Hinduism following an unprecedented spate of violence over Christmas in Orissa state’s Kandhamal district, federal intelligence sources have warned ....
January 22 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, January 22 (Compass Direct News) – Six Hindu nationalist (Hindutva) extremists stormed a house church, abducted two Christians and severely beat them last Thursday (January 17) in Madhya Pradesh state’s Rewa district. Brandishing swords, ....
January 18 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, January 18 (Compass Direct News) – More than 80 people were injured in an attack on a large Christian meeting on Wednesday (January 16) in Chhattisgarh state’s Durg district, followed yesterday by an assault on a missionary camp in ....
January 15 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, January 15 (Compass Direct News) – With elections due in 10 states this year and a general election scheduled for 2009, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is apparently planning to use religion-related issues to polarize ....
January 10 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, January 9 (Compass Direct News) – With more than 800 attacks around Christmas time in Orissa state, the number of attacks on Christians in 2007 crossed 1,000 for the first time since India’s Independence in 1947. At least 200 incidents of ....
January 4 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, January 4 (Compass Direct News) – Emerging facts indicate that India’s largest spate of anti-Christian violence, which has rendered thousands homeless in Orissa’s Kandhamal district, was preplanned. Three months before the series of ....
January 2 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, January 2 (Compass Direct News) – Orissa state’s Kandhamal district remains tense 10 days after a series of anti-Christian attacks began, and thousands of Christians whose houses have been burned down are facing hunger and fear. Pastor ....
December 31 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, December 31 (Compass Direct News) – In their campaign against Christians, Hindu extremists in India are increasingly relying on a key weapon: police officers. Local police in Bangalore recently arrested and harassed five workers from the ....
December 28 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, December 28 (Compass Direct News) – At least four Christians are feared dead, many injured and more than 50 churches and 200 homes are either destroyed or damaged in Orissa state in anti-Christian violence that began Christmas Eve. ....
December 18 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, December 18 Compass Direct News) – Violence and discrimination against Christians in India is reaching beyond uneducated, rural villages – Hindu extremists are increasingly targeting middle class churches in cosmopolitan centers. A mob of ....
November 30 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, November 30 (Compass Direct News) – Ending a long era of absence of adoption rights for non-Hindus, the government has cleared the way for all religious communities in all Indian states to adopt legally. The government of the Congress ....
November 29 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, November 29 (Compass Direct News) – More than 500 Christians from across the country staged a rally in New Delhi today to protest yet another Supreme Court deferment of a hearing on the rights of more than 16 million Dalit Christians. ....
November 29 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, November 29 (Compass Direct News) – About 20 Hindu extremists in Karnataka state’s Hassan district on Sunday (November 25) stormed a worship service, dragged out two pastors and another believer, stripped them and beat them after tying ....
November 27 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, November 27 (Compass Direct News) – 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 ....
November 14 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, November 14 (Compass Direct News) – In a rare instance of conflict between two religious communities in India, Muslims in a village in West Bengal state have ostracized a couple for converting to Christianity from Islam. Muslims in ....
November 9 (CDN) — MUMBAI, India, November 9 (Compass Direct News) – 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. In a scene ....
November 6 (CDN) — Jammu and Kashmir, November 6 (Compass Direct News) – At least four Hindu extremists attacked two Christians from the Believers Church in India (BCI) on November 4 in Jammu, the winter capital of the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir. A ....
October 18 (CDN) — Andhra Pradesh, October 18 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists on October 12 attacked a group of eight Christians who were distributing gospel tracts in Tiriyani village, Medak district, Andhra Pradesh. Lion Francis, regional coordinator of the ....
October 8 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, October 8 (Compass Direct News) – 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 ....
October 2 (CDN) — Karnataka, October 2 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal on September 30 attacked and injured Christians during a worship service in Kodlipet in Somwarpet taluk, Kodagu district, Karnataka. Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global ....
September 28 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, September 28 (Compass Direct News) – Local villagers in Jharkhand state arranged for a Christian worker, Ajay Topno, to be shot to death earlier this month for converting three tribal families to Christianity, according to police. The ....
September 25 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, September 25 (Compass Direct News) – 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 abortion in Chhattisgarh state. The ....
September 21 (CDN) — MUMBAI, India, September 21 (Compass Direct News) – Christians will hold a rally in Karnataka’s capital, Bangalore, tomorrow to protest a growing number of Hindu extremists attacks in the state and planned assaults on church meetings in Mysore ....
September 19 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, September 19 (Compass Direct News) – The U.S. Department of State’s 2007 Report on International Religious Freedom gives India’s federal government high marks for respecting religious freedom, but Christian leaders said this does not mean ....
September 12 (CDN) — Karnataka, September 12 (Compass Direct News) – A group of about 35 people from the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) beat the principal of a Bible college on September 10 in Geddalhalli village on Hennur Road in Bangalore. Dr. Sajan ....
August 31 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 31 (Compass Direct News) – A series of attacks on a Dalit Christian pastor in Tamil Nadu state earlier this year ended in Hindu extremists murdering his brother last month. Pastor Paul Chinnaswamy of Krishnagiri district has also ....
August 30 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 30 (Compass Direct News) – The governor of Chhattisgarh has objected to excessive government control and a religious double standard in a state “anti-conversion” amendment bill proposed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata ....
August 29 (CDN) — Chhattisgarh, August 29 (Compass Direct News) – Two pastors were arrested on charges of “hurting religious feelings” and fraudulent conversion on August 26 after Hindu extremists and police disrupted a church’s Sunday worship following the baptism ....
August 28 (CDN) — MUMBAI, India, August 28 (Compass Direct News) – Pastor Mark Jaikumar is recovering in a private care facility in Bangalore, Karnataka state after being kidnapped, blindfolded and hearing Hindu extremists’ plans to kill him – his second abduction in ....
August 27 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 27 (Compass Direct News) – An attack on a Christian hospital during its program for Dalits in Uttar Pradesh state highlights Hindu extremists’ main objection to Christian work: conversion of people who were once called ....
August 18 (CDN) — Karnataka, August 17 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists allegedly belonging to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) on India’s Independence Day (August 15) barged into a church in Karnataka, ....
August 6 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 6 (Compass Direct News) – The state government of Gujarat has decided to implement the dormant “anti-conversion” law, passed by the state assembly in 2003, after the governor’s refusal to approve the anti-conversion amendment bill ....
August 3 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, August 3 (Compass Direct News) – A Christian advocacy group has asked the chief minister of the northeastern state of Assam to provide protection to believers after unidentified assailants suspected to be Hindu extremists beat a Christian ....
July 24 (CDN) — Madhya Pradesh, July 24 (Compass Direct News) – A dozen masked men wielding cricket stumps and clubs entered the grounds of a Catholic religious community in Satna district, Madhya Pradesh on July 18, and six of them assaulted four men. The men ....
July 20 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, July 20 (Compass Direct News) – The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat state has resumed the secret survey of Christian institutions it began eight years ago. Extremists have used such surveys to target ....
July 10 (CDN) — Karnataka, July 10 (Compass Direct News) – About 10 extremists from a newly formed Hindu militant group, Ram Sena, on July 8 beat two Christian workers and paraded them half-naked to a police station for what an advocacy group called false charges ....
July 10 (CDN) — GUDIVADA, Andhra Pradesh, July 10 (Compass Direct News) – Family and friends of Pastor Goda Israel, whose body was found in a pond in Andhra Pradesh in February, say they are still convinced that he was murdered despite police claims of “accidental ....
June 29 (CDN) — Karnataka, June 28 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists assaulted Silvester Pereira, a Roman Catholic priest at Carmel Church at Katkeri, in the village of Koteshwara, Kundapura, in a hospital on June 25, the Deccan Herald News Service (DHNS) ....
June 19 (CDN) — Madhya Pradesh, June 19 (Compass Direct News) – Police in Chhindwara district detained Pastor Sumat Yadav and three members of his church on June 17 after extremists accused them of attempted conversion. “Hindu extremists came along with the police ....
June 12 (CDN) — June 12 (Compass Direct News) – A mob of Hindu extremists on Friday (June 8) beat a pastor and tried to set him on fire before parading him naked in the suburbs of Bangalore, capital of Karnataka state. Some 150 people allegedly led by Hindu ....
June 7 (CDN) — New Delhi, June 7 (Compass Direct News) – The Congress Party has asked India’s government to advance slowly on the issue of granting equal rights for Dalit religious minorities – discouraging India’s 16 million Dalit Christians who hope for a ....
June 6 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, June 6 (Compass Direct News) – Televised attacks on Christian workers and a spurt in persecution in various parts of the country point to a renewed attempt to win support for Hindu nationalistic goals, Christians say. TV camera crews ....
May 25 (CDN) — Jharkhand, May 24 (Compass Direct News) – Five extremists attacked Father George Minj and Sister Teresa Kindo from the Gara Lodhma parish near Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand state, on May 14 as they returned home from a prayer meeting. Sister ....
May 24 (CDN) — May 24 (Compass Direct News) – On May 12, a Catholic priest moved out of his village in Rajasthan’s Udaipur district after a mob entered his house, ransacked his room and demanded that he leave the area. In a memorandum submitted to police, Father ....
May 23 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, May 23 (Compass Direct News) – A report of an advisory panel favoring affirmative action benefits for Dalit converts to Christianity has raised the hopes of India’s 16 million lowest-caste believers as they await a Supreme Court hearing ....
May 14 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, May 14 (Compass Direct News) – The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is expected to enact an anti-conversion law in the northern state of Uttarakhand. Uttarakhand Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri on April 15 said that his government ....
May 8 (CDN) — Maharashtra, May 8 (Compass Direct News) – Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) beat two Christian workers in Shahpur village, Kolhapur district before a television camera and a large crowd on May 7. According to the ....
May 1 (CDN) — Karnataka, April 30 (Compass Direct News) – A mob of around 50 Hindu extremists allegedly belonging to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) surrounded a house church the night of April 22 and began shouting derogatory statements at worshippers. Dr. ....
April 27 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, April 27 (Compass Direct News) – A Christian organization’s documentary film shows evidence that Hindu extremists made false claims about bringing Christian converts back to the Hindu fold. Four Dalit Christian families in Balmiki Basti ....
April 25 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, April 25 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh have brought the incidence of Christian persecution to an unprecedented high, including a slander campaign against the state’s chief minister, Dr. ....
April 24 (CDN) — April 24 (Compass Direct News) – The Supreme Court of India has admitted a petition seeking action against the distribution of compact discs (CDs) by Hindu extremists that allegedly suggested in 2006 that Christians in Gujarat state should be ....
April 21 (CDN) — Andhra Pradesh, April 20 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists launched an attack on the Bethel Church in Kabir Nagar area in Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state, on April 15. According to Dr. Sajan K. George, national president of the ....
April 11 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, April 11 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists attacked pastors, disrupted worship, and “reconverted” 70 Dalit Christians on Easter. These incidents followed violent attacks on two Palm Sunday processions. One pastor endured three ....
April 11 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, April 11 (Compass Direct News) – Although elections in Madhya Pradesh are more than 18 months away, two Christian leaders there link the state’s ruling Hindu nationalist party to rising persecution ahead of the upcoming vote. Since July ....
April 4 (CDN) — Madhya Pradesh, April 3 (Compass Direct News) – About 30 Hindu extremists belonging to the Dharma Sena (Religious Army) attacked 250 Christians on April 1 (Palm Sunday) during final prayers at St. Paul’s Church in Gokulpur, Jabalpur, in Madhya ....
March 28 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, March 28 (Compass Direct News) – With the arrest of 22 Christians after false accusations of fraudulent conversion last week in Dharwad district in Karnataka, the number of incidents of persecution of Christians in the state reached 16 in ....
March 21 (CDN) — Jammu and Kashmir, March 21 (Compass Direct News) – A group of masked, suspected Islamist militants on March 6 beat a Christian pastor with steel rods and wooden sticks in Kupwara district of the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir. Pastor Ashir ....
March 13 (CDN) — MUMBAI, India, March 13 (Compass Direct News) – Police officers and members of a Hindu extremist group in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday (March 11) lured a pastor into a remote forest, where the extremists tied his hands and feet and beat him with wooden ....
March 12 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, March 12 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists have extended to the northern state of Himachal Pradesh a movement to bring Christian converts back to the Hindu fold through dubious “reconversion” events. In what can be seen as the ....
March 6 (CDN) — Maharashtra, March 6 (Compass Direct News) – A mob of Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal on March 3 beat two Christians who were distributing tracts at the Kandivli railway station in suburban Mumbai, in Maharashtra state. Pastor Nigel Pereira of ....
February 28 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 28 (Compass Direct News) – With the governor of Himachal Pradesh approving an “anti-conversion” bill last week, India now has seven states with legislation banning unregistered or unethical religious conversions – to the glee of ....
February 27 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 27 (Compass Direct News) – The body of a 29-year-old pastor was found with stab wounds on February 20 in a canal in Krishna district of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Pastor Goda Israel was found dead last Tuesday in a ....
February 26 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 26 (Compass Direct News) – Christians in Chhattisgarh state said the Jashpur district administration is harassing them by filing 271 property complaints against their institutions. Local Christians said the state government, ....
February 23 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 23 (Compass Direct News) – A young man who attacked five Christians in December 2005 beat the wife of one of the victims this week in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh state. Jogi Sahu, a 19-year-old man allegedly associated ....
February 20 (CDN) — Damaged Philadelphia church Maharashtra, February 16 (Compass Direct News) – A group of Hindu extremists from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on February 10 damaged the unfinished construction of Philadelphia Church in Vagda village of Navapur ....
February 13 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 13 (Compass Direct News) – The Madhya Pradesh State Minorities Commission claims that reports of Hindu extremists persecuting Christians in the state are “baseless,” angering the small Christian community. The state commission’s ....
February 12 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 12 (Compass Direct News) – The Indian government has proposed an amendment to a law on foreign funding of social service organizations that could seriously hinder the work of an estimated 20,000 development organizations – 50 ....
February 9 (CDN) — Chhattisgarh, February 9 (Compass Direct News) – A small group of people allegedly belonging to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on February 8 beat an evangelist of the Friends Missionary Prayer Band and forced him to the police station in ....
February 5 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, February 5 (Compass Direct News) – About 25 members of the Hindu extremist group Dharam Sena (Religion Army) attacked a pastors’ conference in Raipur, Chhattisgarh state, on Friday (February 2), injuring at least 10 Christians. The attack ....
February 2 (CDN) — Editor’s Note: Today Compass Direct News inaugurates an occasional series of news briefs in order to maintain a public record of persecution in countries where full coverage of the high volume of incidents would crowd reader in-boxes. Full-length ....
January 31 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, January 31 (Compass Direct News) – An 18-year-old convert from Hinduism breathed his last on January 12, four days after he was found lying wounded near a railway track in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh. Christians say he was ....
January 16 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, January 16 (Compass Direct News) – After Rajasthan state officials turned away hundreds of children returning to an orphanage run by Emmanuel Mission International (EMI) last year, the state Bharatiya Janata Party government has formed a ....
January 15 (CDN) — MUMBAI, India, January 15 (Compass Direct News) – An Indian couple whose marriage was postponed three times due to protests from a Hindu extremist group were finally married last Thursday (January 11) in Jabalpur. Jabalpur marriage officer Deepak ....
January 10 (CDN) — MUMBAI, India, January 10 (Compass Direct News) – Seven youths beat Pastor Robert Kennedy of Bangalore in Karnataka state on Sunday (January 7), after asking him to “pray for a sick friend.” The pastor required 16 stitches to his head and back after ....
January 5 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, January 5 (Compass Direct News) – After launching several anti-Christian attacks during the last week of 2006, Hindu extremists went on to beat more Christians, vandalize vehicles and organize a protest rally against a church, dampening ....
January 3 (CDN) — NEW DELHI, January 3 (Compass Direct News) – The Congress Party has passed an anti-conversion bill in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, where only 8,000 of the more than 6 million people are Christian. Under the bill, any person found forcibly ....
December 27 (CDN) — December 27 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists burned down a church in India on Saturday (December 23), arrested carol-singers on Christmas Eve and disrupted yuletide services in several states. One Christian suffered a fractured hand, and ....
December 22 (CDN) — December 22 (Compass Direct News) – A group of Hindu extremists in the southern state of Karnataka have tortured two young women and a minor who converted to Christianity in an attempt to “reconvert” them to Hinduism. The incident took place in ....
December 21 (CDN) — December 21 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists launched two known attacks against Christians this week, beating a couple in the northern state of Haryana yesterday and assaulting a pastor in the central state of Chhattisgarh on Sunday ....
December 19 (CDN) — December 19 (Compass Direct News) – A crowd of angry parents attacked Archbishop Bernard Moras of Bangalore yesterday, smashing the windshield of his car. The archbishop was visiting a Catholic school complex and church vandalized by a mob of more ....
December 18 (CDN) — December 18 (Compass Direct News) – A caller identifying himself as an Islamic terrorist has threatened to kill a Christian convert from Islam in the southern state of Kerala. Pastor Paul Ciniraj Mohammed, head of Salem Voice Ministries in Kottayam ....
December 15 (CDN) — December 15 (Compass Direct News) – Persecution affects both rural and urban populations in India, but Christians living in villages suffer more due to the practice of sharing common facilities and the presence of hierarchical religious and caste ....
December 8 (CDN) — December 8 (Compass Direct News) – Police in Honavar, a coastal town in Karnataka state, on Tuesday (December 5) arrested a member of Hindu extremist group Bajrang Dal for assaulting a Christian evangelist. Later that day, Bajrang Dal members seized ....
December 1 (CDN) — December 1 (Compass Direct News) – A resident of Elha village in Rohtas district, Bihar state, raped the wife of a local pastor on Wednesday (November 29). Villagers said Hindu extremists encouraged him to rape her in order to disrupt Christian ....
December 1 (CDN) — December 1 (Compass Direct News) – Members of a youth wing of a Hindu extremist group entered the Avila Convent Catholic Girls’ High School at Mysore in Karnataka state on Thursday (November 30) and assaulted several staff members. The members of ....
November 30 (CDN) — November 30 (Compass Direct News) – Police in the eastern state of Jharkhand have turned a blind eye to the plight of two Christian families who were severely beaten and expelled from their village for refusing to give up their faith. Hindu ....
November 28 (CDN) — November 28 (Compass Direct News) – A district court in Punjab state has summoned a police official for severely beating four Christians. The court of Malout Taluka in Punjab’s Muktsar district has summoned Assistant Sub-Inspector Hukam Chand Sharma ....
November 27 (CDN) — November 27 (Compass Direct News) – Four Hindu extremist moves against Christians, including the burning of a church, recently took place in Andhra Pradesh while neighboring Kerala state saw an attack on four pastors. Organizers of a prayer meeting ....
November 21 (CDN) — November 21 (Compass Direct News) – Two unidentified militants today killed a Christian convert from Islam on a busy road in Mamoosa village, Barmullah district, in the terror-stricken state of Jammu and Kashmir. Bashir Ahmed Tantray, a 50-year-old ....
November 20 (CDN) — November 20 (Compass Direct News) – Adherents of a Bodo tribal religion in Assam, north-east India, forced nine families from their homes last Tuesday (November 14) for converting to Christianity. The villagers destroyed six of the nine families’ ....
November 13 (CDN) — November 13 (Compass Direct News) – A court in Gujarat state has handed down a sentence of life imprisonment – a maximum of 14 years, under Indian law – for a man who killed his Catholic driver for asking for an advance in pay to celebrate ....
November 13 (CDN) — November 13 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists in the southern state of Karnataka who yesterday slapped a convert suffering from blood cancer today threatened to keep area converts from joining churches. An alleged supporter of the Hindu ....
November 13 (CDN) — November 13 (Compass Direct News) – During a panchayat or village council meeting convened last Thursday (November 9) to address threats against Christians in a village in Chhattisgarh state, a local politician and others attacked six Christians, ....
November 7 (CDN) — November 7 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists yesterday forced Christians in the remote village of Bevainahalli, in the southern state of Karnataka, to bow down before Hindu deities and applied the vermilion mark to their foreheads. Two Hindu ....
November 6 (CDN) — November 6 (Compass Direct News) – The high court of the western state of Gujarat today heard a counter complaint from eight Christians accused of forced conversion and attempted murder. The counter complaint charges that Hindu extremists attacked ....
November 3 (CDN) — November 3 (Compass Direct News) – Police in the southern state of Karnataka have arrested four more Christians on charges leveled by Hindu extremists. On October 27, police in Udupi district arrested four Christian youths, including three girls, ....
November 2 (CDN) — November 2 (Compass Direct News) – The high court of the western state of Gujarat on Monday (November 6) will hear a complaint by tribal Christians of Surat district that their village head has ordered them to demolish their house church. Vasantbhai ....
November 1 (CDN) — November 1 (Compass Direct News) – Lambini tribal villagers in Karnataka state prohibited Pastor Revanna Naik and his congregation from worshiping on Sunday (October 29), instead forcing them to bow down and worship Hindu deities. Three of the 11 ....
October 31 (CDN) — October 31 (Compass Direct News) – Police last Friday (October 27) arrested a 25-year-old believer for “causing communal disharmony” after Hindu extremists harassed him for selling Christian literature at a healing/evangelistic rally in the eastern ....
October 27 (CDN) — October 27 (Compass Direct News) – Ostracized by their village for the past year, two converts of a church in Madhya Pradesh state’s Shahdol district have been beaten for their refusal to return to the Hindu fold. Santu Prasad Barmaia and Kunjan ....
October 26 (CDN) — October 26 (Compass Direct News) – Police this morning arrested a recent convert in Mayapuri, Madhya Pradesh state for the second time in three days in an apparent attempt to pressure him to give evidence that his pastor forcibly converted him. By ....
October 19 (CDN) — October 19 (Compass Direct News) – Accusing a Christian-run health center of forcible conversions, the Chhattisgarh state government has ordered the takeover of the facility and fired 17 of its employees. Chhattisgarh, controlled by the Hindu ....
October 17 (CDN) — October 17 (Compass Direct News) – Eight Christian workers at a home for the destitute in Karnataka state are in jail on charges of wrongful confinement and abduction after 500 villagers on Saturday (October 14) stormed the facility following false ....
October 11 (CDN) — October 11 (Compass Direct News) – A church in Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur district cancelled its weekly meeting yesterday (October 10) due to tensions in the region following false reports of forcible conversion in newspapers. The reports led to two ....
October 9 (CDN) — Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh attacked at least four Christians in the last three weeks, including a beating of three Dalits and a threat to have their government benefits withdrawn. On September 29 ....
October 6 (CDN) — October 6 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists in Orissa state on Wednesday (October 4) abducted a Christian youth from his house and tortured and tonsured him, allegedly to punish him for accepting Christianity. Ranjan Dangua of Gokulpur ....
October 4 (CDN) — October 4 (Compass Direct News) – Growth in the incidence of violence against Christians in India this year is rooted largely in the political insecurity of Hindu nationalists, sources say. Increased attacks against Christians this year have grown ....
September 29 (CDN) — September 29 (Compass Direct News) – Eight Christians working with the Indian Missionary Society (IMS) in India’s Gujarat state are facing charges of attempted murder and misuse of firearms after Hindu extremists waylaid and assaulted them last ....
September 26 (CDN) — September 26 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists severely beat two pastors on September 24 in Madhya Pradesh, India, before dragging them to a police station and accusing them of “forcing” conversions. Two days earlier, extremists had attacked ....
September 21 (CDN) — September 21 (Compass Direct News) – Christians in Amritsar, in India’s Punjab state, will stage a rally on Friday (September 22) to protest last week’s attack on a 200-year-old church in their city. Church authorities suspect that the family of ....
September 20 (CDN) — September 20 (Compass Direct News) – The Gujarat state assembly House, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, on Tuesday passed a bill to modify the state anti-conversion law of 2003, with intent to clear various legal hurdles that have prevented the ....
September 18 (CDN) — September 18 (Compass Direct News) – On Monday (September 11), Muslim militants attacked the Good Shepherd Mission School in Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir state, destroying the boundary wall and damaging the school building and equipment. The school is ....
September 15 (CDN) — September 15 (Compass Direct News) – Attacks against Christians in Madhya Pradesh continued this week, with Hindu extremists attacking at least three Christian gatherings. A total of eight Christians were accused of attempted forced conversion or ....
September 8 (CDN) — September 8 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists investigating the activities of Varghese Thomas, an evangelist in Karnakata state, laid a trap for him on Sunday (September 3), before beating him and his wife. Thomas is 60 and his wife, Leelama, ....
September 8 (CDN) — September 8 (Compass Direct News) – Two pastors in the coastal town of Akkiallur in Haveri district, Karnataka state, were arrested on Sunday (September 3) after a mob of about 150 people allegedly led by extremists of the Hindu extremist Rashtriya ....
September 6 (CDN) — September 6 (Compass Direct News) – A leader of the Hindu militant group Bajrang Dal on Sunday (September 3) led an attack on a church in Jammu and Kashmir state where about 20 members, including seven Christians facing charges of “concealing ....
September 1 (CDN) — September 1 (Compass Direct News) – A court in Jammu and Kashmir state today granted bail to two pastors and five Bible students who had been detained by police yesterday on charges of “concealing identity” and “forced conversion.” Pastor P.R. ....
August 28 (CDN) — August 28 (Compass Direct News) – Multiple attacks and arrests in recent weeks demonstrate ongoing hostility towards Christians in India. Police have cooperated with Hindu extremists, in some cases claiming “tremendous pressure” to charge Christian ....
August 24 (CDN) — August 24 (Compass Direct News) – The Congress Party-led government of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh has decided to enact a law banning preaching of any religion other than Hinduism in Tirupati, a “temple town” in large measure under the ....
August 22 (CDN) — August 22 (Compass Direct News) – Four Christians, including a pastor, who were beaten up and later arrested on charges of “forced conversion” in Madhya Pradesh state were released on bail yesterday. Pastor K.K. Jwala of the Sheopur Bible Fellowship ....
August 16 (CDN) — August 16 (Compass Direct News) – A group of 45 to50 Dharma Raksha Sena Hindu extremists on Monday (August 14) mobbed Pastor Vinod Karsal, 50, as he visited another pastor in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh to pray for him. Karsal, a pastor at the Assembly ....
August 14 (CDN) — August 14 (Compass Direct News) – A group of about 15 Hindu extremists in the southern state of Karnataka on August 4 entered a jail and attacked a Christian businessman accused of compelling his wife to commit suicide. About 15 extremists of the ....
August 11 (CDN) — August 11 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists have threatened four Christian women accused of “forced” conversion in Tamil Nadu state, while two priests of a Catholic high school in neighboring Karnataka state have been attacked. Albert Lael, ....
August 8 (CDN) — August 8 (Compass Direct News) – A day after extending the bail of leaders of Emmanuel Mission International (EMI), the Rajasthan High Court today restored the registration of five of the mission’s institutions and unfroze EMI bank accounts. EMI ....
August 7 (CDN) — August 7 (Compass Direct News) – The Rajasthan High Court today extended the interim bail of Emmanuel Mission International (EMI) founder Archbishop M.A. Thomas and his son Samuel Thomas, EMI president, to November 30. The court also granted them ....
July 25 (CDN) — July 25 (Compass Direct News) – In spite of a national minority panel report confirming violence against Christians in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh, the state government today passed an amendment making stricter the “anti-conversion” ....
July 24 (CDN) — July 24 (Compass Direct News) – Three young Christians visiting hospital patients – and four Bible students in a separate incident – were attacked and accused of “forced conversions” last week in the southern state of Karnataka. On July 17, at least ....
July 21 (CDN) — July 21 (Compass Direct News) – Hindu extremists vandalized an indigenous church and ministry complex in Shivanapura district, Karnataka state, on Saturday night (July 15), rampaging through facilities and locking terrified residents in their ....
July 20 (CDN) — July 20 (Compass Direct News) – Police on Sunday (July 16) arrested Pastor Om Prakash Pandey while he was leading worship at his independent church in the village of Daksinwara, in the Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh state. The 27-year-old ....
July 17 (CDN) — July 17 (Compass Direct News) – Unidentified youths on July 6 allegedly tried to molest girls and launched an arson attack on the orphanage of Emmanuel Mission International in Rajasthan state’s Kota district. The incident took place at 2 a.m. when ....
July 6 (CDN) — July 6 (Compass Direct) – When four tribal Christians in Toranpada village, Maharashtra state, asked for help following an attack by Hindu extremists last month, police responded by taunting and kicking the victims, then filing charges against them. ....
June 30 (CDN) — June 30 (Compass Direct) – The Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday (June 28) temporarily restored the registrations of five institutions run by Christian charity Emmanuel Mission International (EMI) and restored access to their bank accounts. Judges ....
June 22 (CDN) — June 22 (Compass Direct) – Hindu extremists on Sunday (June 18) broke into Hossana church in Kosa Nala, Bhilai district of Chattisgarh state, attacking Pastor David Raj and other church members, including his wife. They also placed a rubber tire ....
June 20 (CDN) — June 20 (Compass Direct) – Hindu extremists have filed a counter-complaint of “forced conversion” against two Christian women who had lodged rape charges against Hindu villagers in Madhya Pradesh state. The women had filed the charges on May 31 ....
June 19 (CDN) — June 19 (Compass Direct) – The Rajasthan government last Wednesday (June 14) announced plans to take over five institutions operated by Emmanuel Mission International (EMI). The organization leads a native church movement that serves more than ....
June 15 (CDN) — June 15 (Compass Direct) – Hindu extremists on Sunday (June 11) dragged an independent pastor to a police station in Karnataka state, accusing him of converting Hindus to Christianity. They beat Pastor Sundar Rao severely both inside the police ....
June 12 (CDN) — June 12 (Compass Direct) – The body of Prem Kumar, a 67-year-old preacher from the Church of South India, was found last Thursday (June 8) in a forest in Nizamabad district of Andhra Pradesh state. A young man approached Kumar early Thursday morning ....
June 9 (CDN) — June 9 (Compass Direct) – The headman of 12 villages in Madhya Pradesh state, including Nadia village where two Christian women were raped on May 28, has asked Christians to renounce their faith or leave the village, a local source said. Pandya ....
June 9 (CDN) — June 9 (Compass Direct) – Police raided a home in Jabalpur city, Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday (June 6) and arrested Christians there after officers and Hindu extremists coerced a neighbor to file a charge. Homeowner Meera Bai, 52, said her 19-year-old ....
June 7 (CDN) — June 7 (Compass Direct) – A mob of Hindu extremists on Sunday (June 4) stormed a home prayer meeting in Mayapuri, Madhya Pradesh state and dragged Christians inside to a nearby temple to force them to bow before local gods, but it was the church ....
June 5 (CDN) — June 5 (Compass Direct) – A district court of Madhya Pradesh state has acquitted 16 Christians accused of killing a Hindu fundamentalist in the violence that erupted after the body of a young girl was found inside a Catholic school in Jhabua in ....
June 2 (CDN) — June 2 (Compass Direct) – With the encouragement of a local chief and the apparent backing of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, villagers in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh on Sunday (May 28) gang-raped two Christian women after the ....
June 1 (CDN) — June 1 (Compass Direct) – The administration of Rajasthan state’s Kota district has leveled fresh charges of “exciting . . . disaffection towards the government of India” against Emmanuel Mission International (EMI) founder Archbishop M.A. Thomas ....
May 31 (CDN) — May 31 (Compass Direct) – Preparation of a “data bank of churches and missionary organizations” by police in Rajasthan state’s Udaipur district has heightened fears of renewed harassment among the state’s miniscule Christian community. The ....
May 26 (CDN) — May 26 (Compass Direct) – Animist worshipers of nature in a village in Jharkhand state this week humiliated and drove out a local family for becoming Christians. Santosh Karmali, 42, on Sunday (May 21) was forced to sign an agreement with followers ....
May 22 (CDN) — May 22 (Compass Direct) – Amid widespread criticism of the Rajasthan anti-conversion bill by Christian and human rights organizations, Rajasthan Gov. Pratibha Patil on Friday (May 19) refused to sign it into law, saying its provisions would violate ....
May 16 (CDN) — May 16 (Compass Direct) – Christians weary of multifaceted, state-backed assaults were disappointed by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s failure to include India in its 2006 recommendations as a Country of Particular Concern ....
May 15 (CDN) — May 15 (Compass Direct) – Hindu extremists yesterday vandalized an independent church in Gauri Nadi village, about 12 kilometers (seven miles) from Jabalpur city in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh. The attackers beat Dinanath Tiwari, 35, ....
May 11 (CDN) — May 11 (Compass Direct) – A woman in the city of Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh state, has accused six of her uncles and their pastor of trying to forcefully convert her to Christianity. The men involved said the accusations are an attempt to get revenge ....
May 9 (CDN) — May 9 (Compass Direct) – Punjab police on Friday (May 5) assured members of a house church in Bhatinda district attacked by Hindu extremists during an Easter service that they would help negotiate a compromise with the attackers. Sukh Pal Singh, a ....
May 4 (CDN) — May 4 (Compass Direct) – Police in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh state on Monday (May 1) colluded with Hindu extremists by having Christian “evidence” planted in a social worker’s personal bag in order to charge him with “forcible” conversion of ....
May 2 (CDN) — May 2 (Compass Direct) – The Rev. Dr. Samuel Thomas, president of the Emmanuel Mission International (EMI), was released from the Kota Central Jail today after the Rajasthan High Court granted him interim bail for three months. The Supreme Court had ....
April 27 (CDN) — April 27 (Compass Direct) – Dr. John Dayal, president of the All India Catholic Union, has lodged an official complaint against L.K. Advani, former deputy prime minister and current leader of the opposition in Parliament, for hurting the religious ....
April 25 (CDN) — April 25 (Compass Direct) – The Supreme Court of India on Friday (April 21) granted anticipatory bail to Archbishop M.A. Thomas, the founder of Emmanuel Mission International (EMI) who has been in hiding since authorities issued an arrest warrant ....
April 19 (CDN) — April 19 (Compass Direct) – Police backed by Hindu extremists arrested Avinash Lal, an independent Pentecostal pastor from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh state, and six other Christian leaders last night (April 18) on charges on “fraudulent conversion.” ....
April 17 (CDN) — April 17 (Compass Direct) – Easter in India was marred by violence throughout Holy Week. In the southern state of Karnataka yesterday, 15 Hindu extremists said to be from the extremist Bajrang Dal attacked a Sunday morning church service, assaulting ....
April 13 (CDN) — April 13 (Compass Direct) – An anti-conversion bill passed by the Rajasthan state assembly last Friday (April 7) is unconstitutional and could lead to an “explosive situation” in the state, Christians say. Religious tensions in the state are already ....
April 13 (CDN) — April 13 (Compass Direct) – Extremists attacked two Christian schools and a private Christian gathering last week in Madhya Pradesh state and accused several Christians of carrying out “illegal conversions.” Christians responded with a protest march ....
April 12 (CDN) — April 12 (Compass Direct) – Hindu leaders attending a centenary celebration of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) last weekend converted at least 344 tribal Christians to Hinduism. Although police were present, they took no action to enforce ....
April 7 (CDN) — April 7 (Compass Direct) – Pastor Paul Ciniraj Mohammed, a Christian convert from Islam, is still recovering from what he believes was a murder attempt in Kottayam district, in the southern state of Kerala. Ciniraj is the head of Salem Voice ....
April 6 (CDN) — April 6 (Compass Direct) – The Rajasthan state assembly tomorrow will consider a bill approved in principle that would prohibit “forced or fraudulent” conversions, which Christian groups fear Hindu elements will use against people who have ....
April 5 (CDN) — April 5 (Compass Direct) – The pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party government of Gujarat state has declined to renew its contract with the Catholic administrators of a leprosy hospital in Ahmedabad, on the grounds that the nuns were “preaching ....
April 4 (CDN) — April 4 (Compass Direct) – The Supreme Court last Tuesday (March 28) quietly ruled that conversion of tribal people to Christianity could disqualify them from running for some elective offices if the posts involve religious functions. This ruling ....
March 29 (CDN) — March 29 (Compass Direct) – In remanding the president of the Emmanuel Mission International (EMI) to judicial custody until April 10, a Rajasthan court today ordered the administration to keep the Rev. Dr. Samuel Thomas in a cell separate from ....
March 27 (CDN) — March 27 (Compass) – Hindu extremists broke into a Youth With a Mission (YWAM) training center on March 17 in Madhya Pradesh state, beating students and significantly damaging furniture and equipment. YWAM director Mukesh Jacob and his wife have ....
March 24 (CDN) — March 24 (Compass) – A Hindu extremist group planning centenary celebrations in April hopes to “reconvert” as many as 10,000 tribal Christians to Hinduism during the event. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) will hold the Dharma Jogna in Orissa, ....
March 21 (CDN) — March 21 (Compass) – A day after a mission organization’s president was given three more days in police custody, a delegation from the All India Christian Council today has submitted a report to the prime minister concluding that Rajasthan state is ....
March 20 (CDN) — March 20 (Compass) – The Rev. Tongkhojang Lunkim was released at 1 p.m. on Saturday (March 18) after being held captive for two months by the Kuki Liberation Army (KLA) in Manipur state, Northeast India. Before handing him over, the KLA forced ....
March 20 (CDN) — March 20 (Compass) – The murder of Father Eusebio Ferrao in Goa state early Saturday morning (March 18) has sent shockwaves through the Catholic communities of India. Fr. Ferrao, 61, was parish priest of St. Francis Xavier Church in the village of ....
March 16 (CDN) — March 16 (Compass) – The Rev. Tongkhojang Lunkim is still missing two months after a rebel army in Northeast India kidnapped the administrative secretary of the Kuki Christian Church on January 17, and relatives fear for his safety. Rev. Lunkim’s ....
March 16 (CDN) — March 16 (Compass) – Rajasthan state police officers arrested the Rev. Dr. Samuel Thomas, president of Emmanuel Mission International (EMI) and son of Archbishop M.A. Thomas, EMI’s founder. Both men had gone underground after Hindu extremists ....
March 15 (CDN) — March 15 (Compass) – A concerted attack on Emmanuel Mission International (EMI) orphanages, schools and other ministries in Rajasthan intensified this week when the state welfare minister, Madan Dilawar, said he should be stoned to death if his ....
March 9 (CDN) — March 9 (Compass) – Christians in the northwestern state of Rajasthan have pledged to begin public protests on March 18 if the government refuses to take action following a recent wave of violence against the Christian community. Hindu extremists ....
March 8 (CDN) — March 8 (Compass) – Hindu villagers in the eastern state of West Bengal assaulted Christian women from two different families on Thursday (March 2) and on February 16. In last week’s assault, six young men forced their way into the home of Kanai ....
March 8 (CDN) — March 8 (Compass) – Approximately 15 policemen from Rajasthan and Karnataka states forcefully entered the home of prominent Christian leader Sajan K. George on Monday (March 6) in his absence. They searched the house and questioned family members ....
February 21 (CDN) — February 21 (Compass) – Accusing a pastor in the northern state of Punjab of “forcible conversion,” an Indian woman from Canada and three unidentified youths on February 8 beat the Christian leader so severely that he required hospital treatment. ....
February 17 (CDN) — February 17 (Compass) – In recent weeks Hindu extremist organizations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS or Indian Volunteers Corp) have made headlines for organizing the controversial Shabri Kumbh or Hindu “reawakening” rally in Dangs ....
February 14 (CDN) — February 14 (Compass) – Christianity is a major threat to Indian nationalism, organizers of a “reconversion” rally held last weekend in Gujarat indicated yesterday during the closing ceremony. Organizers of the Shabri Kumbh led the 60,000-strong ....
February 13 (CDN) — February 13 (Compass) – Speakers at the Shabri Kumbh, a “reawakening” event organized by Hindu extremists in Dangs district, Gujarat state over the weekend, encouraged tribal Christians to “reconvert” and passed a resolution calling on the Indian ....
February 3 (CDN) — February 3 (Compass) – Extremists encouraged Hindu residents of a village in Malkangiri district, Orissa state, to attack Christian residents on January 24, leaving at least 10 Christians injured with two requiring hospitalization. Four missionaries ....
February 2 (CDN) — February 2 (Compass) – A 50-strong Hindu mob attacked a new Catholic school and boarding hostel as the facility was inaugurated on Sunday (January 29) in Maharashtra state. The mob threw stones into the crowd, broke chairs and beat participants with ....
January 30 (CDN) — January 30 (Compass) – Hindu extremists armed with sticks, rods and other sharp weapons gate-crashed a Christian seminar held in a private home in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh on Saturday morning (January 28). Six Christians were rushed to a hospital with ....
January 27 (CDN) — January 27 (Compass) – Some Christian leaders have suggested evacuating the entire Christian tribal population of Dangs in Gujarat state before the Shabri Kumbh, a Hindu “re-awakening” festival planned for February 11-13. Others have discouraged the ....
January 25 (CDN) — January 25 (Compass) – A pastor and his cousin charged with attempted forced conversion in Orissa state were released on bail yesterday, while five Hindu villagers charged with assault and setting fire to the pastor’s house are still in custody. On ....
January 23 (CDN) — January 23 (Compass) – At this time last year, Noor Jehan Ahmed, 55, lived peacefully in the village of Nagaon, in the northeastern state of Assam, her extended household of 29 people forming a Christian enclave within the majority-Muslim community. ....
January 19 (CDN) — January 19 (Compass) – Hindu extremists attacked Christians in two incidents in Andhra Pradesh state on January 12 and 13. Seven Christians, including two pastors, sustained injuries. In Nizamabad district on January 12, a mob of about 100 ....
January 12 (CDN) — January 12 (Compass) – A number of key Christian leaders recently called on the Indian government to ban or strictly supervise a massive Hindu “reawakening” event to be held in the tribal district of Dangs, Gujarat state, February 11-13. At least ....
January 4 (CDN) — January 4 (Compass) – Police decided yesterday to allow a make-shift Hindu temple but banned Christians from worshiping at a nearby house church following a conflict that led to Hindu fundamentalists attacking four people. Hindu extremists had set ....
December 30 (CDN) — December 30 (Compass) – Hindu extremists launched two attacks on Catholics in the northern state of Rajasthan during the week before Christmas. On Saturday (December 24), nine members of the Hindu extremist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ....
December 15 (CDN) — December 15 (Compass) – From setting fire to churches to forced “reconversion” to Hinduism, extremists persecuted Roman Catholics throughout 2005. In several cases of religiously-motivated violence this year, police have refused to file charges, ....
December 14 (CDN) — December 14 (Compass) – Pastor Feroz Masih of the Believers’ Church in India, who had earlier received death and arson threats, was forced to vacate his house in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India, on December 7. “The administration of ....
December 5 (CDN) — December 5 (Compass) – Two militant Hindu groups struck churches in Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh states on Sunday (December 4). At least 25 members of the Hindu extremist group Dharma Sena attacked a church in Raipur, Chattisgarh state, severely ....
December 2 (CDN) — December 2 (Compass) – A group of young people attacked three Christians as they distributed Christian literature in the western state of Maharashtra on Saturday (November 26). Two of the three were hospitalized. The attack took place in Panvel ....
December 1 (CDN) — December 1 (Compass) – Since receiving Christ at age 21, Rev. Alavi has endured various attempts on his life. Because of his ministry among Muslims, he receives numerous death threats by phone or by letter. Nearly every day he is assailed in Muslim ....
November 30 (CDN) — November 30 (Compass) – India’s Supreme Court on Monday (November 28) for the third time deferred ruling on whether Dalit Christians (low-caste “untouchables”) can be denied job and education rights. Dalits belonging to Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh ....
November 29 (CDN) — November 29 (Compass) – Christians in the Kakradara area of Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh state are living in fear after extremists barred access to their new church and beat up their pastor and visiting evangelists after a church dedication ceremony on ....
November 21 (CDN) — November 21 (Compass) – Members of the Believers’ Church in India (BCI) in Himachal Pradesh state met peacefully on Sunday, despite death and arson threats issued by Hindu extremists. On November 4, extremists from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or ....
November 18 (CDN) — November 18 (Compass) – The chief of a local Hindu extremist group told Pastor Masih Das Rai of Chattisgarh state that he wanted to embrace Christianity, then sprang a trap on the pastor at the baptism ceremony. On November 10, the day he was to be ....
November 14 (CDN) — November 14 (Compass) – Hindu extremists attacked 62-year-old Pastor Feroz Masih in the north Indian state of Himachal Pradesh on November 4, accusing him of “forcibly converting” Hindus and beating him severely. The attackers then forced Masih to ....
November 8 (CDN) — November 8 (Compass) – Hindu extremists disrupted a prayer gathering of 200 people in the home of a Christian family in Uttar Pradesh state on Sunday (November 6). Accusing the family of converting Hindus to Christianity, the extremists confined the ....
November 8 (CDN) — November 8 (Compass) – A mob of about 150 high-caste Hindus attacked Dalit Christians attending an event at Bhoomas village in Gujarat state last Thursday (November 3). The assault, carried out to punish Dalit Christians for attending a cultural ....
October 27 (CDN) — October 27 (Compass) – About 30 Hindu extremists attacked a pastor, his wife and their driver in the western state of Gujarat on October 23. The three sustained internal injuries. The Rev. Arthur Jebaraj and his wife, Nyana Sundari Jebaraj, and ....
October 27 (CDN) — October 27 (Compass) – For nearly two weeks, Hindu extremists have been attacking Christians in the Banswara district of Rajasthan state, resulting in the cancellation today of the last day of a revival festival. The violence accelerated on Tuesday ....
October 21 (CDN) — October 21 (Compass) – India’s Supreme Court on September 26 issued a notice to the federal government asking it to respond to the absence of laws enabling religious minorities to legally adopt children. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of ....
October 20 (CDN) — October 20 (Compass) – Eight local extremists attacked pastors and vandalized equipment at a Pentecostal healing event with 500 people in attendance in Delhi on Friday, October 14. Six pastors sustained injuries in the attack. The attackers also ....
October 18 (CDN) — October 18 (Compass) – Hindu extremists stormed the annual convention of a church in Raipur on Saturday, October 15, alleging that organizers had kidnapped tribal people for conversion. Returning the next day, they manhandled Christians and shouted ....
October 11 (CDN) — October 11 (Compass) – A Christian worker is in jail in Indore, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, after authorities arrested him on October 7 for “converting young children from poor Hindu families to Christianity.” Indore police arrested Sunny John ....
October 3 (CDN) — October 3 (Compass) – Religious tensions in Punjab state increased last week, as police who had taken several Christians into custody, presumably to protect them from Hindu extremists, instead beat them in jail. At least 40 Christians were praying ....
September 29 (CDN) — September 29 (Compass) – Radical Hindu villagers of Jamanya village, in Maharashtra state’s Jalgaon district, remain hostile to Christian families who were attacked on May 16 – threatening to beat them if they refuse to renounce their faith, ....
September 28 (CDN) — September 28 (Compass) – Nine Christians in Chattisgarh’s Durg district are on trial for disrupting the peace between two communities by “attempting to convert” Hindu villagers with offers of money. On Monday, September 26, the pastor and eight ....
September 27 (CDN) — September 27 (Compass) – Hindu extremists on September 22 attacked and threatened several Christians in the Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh state, accusing them of desecrating a Hindu idol. One Christian was admitted to a hospital with grave ....
September 25 (CDN) — September 26 (Compass) – Hindu extremists returned to the Gospel Echoing Missionary Society (GEMS) compound in Rohtas district, Bihar state, on Sunday, September 25. They injured several Christians at the compound – which they had previously ....
September 20 (CDN) — September 20 (Compass) -- Christians in Chattisgarh, India organized a five-day rally last week to protest increased attacks on churches in the state. About 80 Christian leaders attended the rally, coordinated by Arun Pannalal of the Church of North ....
September 12 (CDN) — September 12 (Compass) — The state government of Rajasthan plans to present an anti-conversion bill to the state assembly during its next session, beginning on September 26. Ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the state ....
September 8 (CDN) — September 8 (Compass) -- Police picked up two Christians attending a worship service at the home of Jagdish and Grace Nayak on September 4 and detained them for four hours. A Hindu mob also threatened Atul David and Antar Singh with death if they ....
September 8 (CDN) — September 8 (Compass) -- A mob of Hindu extremists surrounded a Gospel Echoing Missionary Society mission compound in India’s Bihar state on August 31 and kept it under siege for three days. The mob attempted to kill the Rev. Augustine Jebakumar, ....
September 2 (CDN) — September 2 (Compass) -- The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) has called for a comprehensive law to ban religious conversions in India, as part of a new campaign to stem the “increasing” number of conversions around the country. ....
August 29 (CDN) — August 29 (Compass) -- Christians throughout India have begun a week of prayer and fasting following a government delay in determining equal rights for Dalit Christians. Dalits belonging to the Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh faiths qualify for a ....
August 29 (CDN) — August 29 (Compass) -- A mob of Hindu extremists violently attacked a prayer meeting in the town of Indore in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh on August 21. At least 10 people, including women and a 2-year-old child, were injured. The ....
August 15 (CDN) — August 15 (Compass) -- Hindu extremists violently attacked Christians at a prayer meeting in Rajasthan state on midnight of August 14, seriously injuring nine believers. The Christians were taking part in an all-night prayer vigil in a private home ....
August 15 (CDN) — August 15 (Compass) -- Attempts to strengthen the state anti-conversion law in Chattisgarh state, India, have been held up due to “technical problems,” according to a government official. Under the proposed amendments, any person wishing to convert ....
August 8 (CDN) — August 8 (Compass) -- Hindu extremists have begun a campaign to “reconvert” Christians from Dalit backgrounds in the north-central Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The World Hindu Council plans to convert to Hinduism at least 80,000 Dalits (India’s ....
August 4 (CDN) — August 4 (Compass) -- Hindu villagers have accused a Christian couple in Madhya Pradesh state, India, of attempted forced conversion. Jagdish and Grace Nayak were arrested on July 19 in Jeet Nagar village, Indore district. Dharmendra Chaterjee ....
August 3 (CDN) — August 3 (Compass) -- The Indian government has proposed a new law to stop the flow of foreign donations for “anti-national activities.” Christian leaders fear the new law would be used to stifle foreign support of churches in India. The new bill ....
July 28 (CDN) — July 28 (Compass) -- The High Court of Orissa state has asked local officials to examine complaints of “forced conversions” and ordered strict enforcement of the state anti-conversion law. Petitioners had claimed that Christian missionaries were ....
July 26 (CDN) — July 26 (Compass) -- Officials in the north-central state of Madhya Pradesh say their anti-conversion law will be amended to check the conversion of tribal people to Christianity. The decision follows a report by Narendra Prasad, a retired ....
July 20 (CDN) — July 20 (Compass) -- Cinemas in a town in Gujarat state have begun screening a public service announcement challenging religious conversion. The infomercial suggesting that changing one’s faith is impossible was ostensibly made to educate audiences ....
July 11 (CDN) — July 11 (Compass) -- A 25-year-old man, Kokala Govardhan, has confessed to the killing of Pastor K. Daniel and Pastor Isaac Raju in Hyderabad, southern India. Both murders occurred in May; police arrested Govardhan in late June. Govardhan told ....
July 7 (CDN) — July 7 (Compass) -- Hindu extremists launched a series of violent attacks against Catholics in India during the month of June, causing concern among the Catholic community. Ten young men attacked a Catholic convent in Rajgir, Bihar state, on June ....
June 23 (CDN) — June 23 (Compass) -- On June 4, a government official in Orissa, India, ordered the demolition of a Christian settlement “within 48 hours” to make way for a boating park to attract tourists to the area. However due to a public outcry, an interim ....
June 21 (CDN) — June 21 (Compass) -- Eleven Christian families in Maharashtra state, India, have lodged an official complaint of sexual assault carried out by Hindu villagers. On May 15, the families were summoned to a community court and asked to give up their ....
June 9 (CDN) — June 9 (Compass) — Around 200 Hindu activists attacked a church in Moti Chowk village, Chattisgarh, India, on June 6, while services were underway. Police then arrested nine church members and charged them with “disturbing the peace” under Section ....
June 6 (CDN) — June 6 (Compass) — Gunmen opened fire on the Believer’s Church in Lamding, Thoubal district, Manipur state, on May 29. Approximately 30 Christians gathered at the church that night were unharmed. When police refused to register a complaint on the ....
June 6 (CDN) — June 6 (Compass) — Police in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh found the body of Pastor Isaac Raju on June 2. Raju went missing on May 24. Just days earlier, on May 21, the body of Pastor K. Daniel was found with marks suggestive of an acid ....
June 2 (CDN) — June 2 (Compass) — Citing improvements in religious liberty, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom last month asked that India be removed from the U.S. government’s list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC). India was ....
May 31 (CDN) — May 31 (Compass) — Former employees have accused seven staff members of the Atmik Vikas Trust (AVT) in Uttar Pradesh, India, of “running a gang to convert poor Hindus.” The complainants had signed up for a training program with AVT in return for ....
May 27 (CDN) — May 27 (Compass) — A Christian couple in Gujarat, India, are recovering from serious injuries received in an attack in early May. Jamubhai Choudhary was slashed with an ax, and his wife, Jathriben, suffered a bone fracture. Meanwhile, the brutal ....
May 20 (CDN) — May 20 (Compass) -- Hindu extremists physically attacked 11 Christian families from Jamanya village in Jalgaon district, Maharashtra state, India, on May 15 and 16. Village officials had summoned the families to a panchayat (community court) on May ....
May 18 (CDN) — May 18 (Compass) -- A right-wing Hindu group, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council), in Orissa, India, has threatened to launch a campaign for the dismissal of Christian government officers in response to an order granting equal ....
May 16 (CDN) — May 16 (Compass) -- A group of extremists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) attacked and beat eight students from Beersheba Bible College of the Indian Pentecostal Church of God at Maraman, Chettimukku, on May 12. The students were making ....
May 4 (CDN) — May 4 (Compass) -- A crowd of nearly 500 Hindu villagers attacked a house church in Mangalwarapete village, Karnataka state, India, on May 1. Assailants molested some of the women among the 60 people present at the Sunday service and burned Bibles ....
April 25 (CDN) — April 25 (Compass) -- Christian leaders held an emergency meeting in Manipur, India, on April 22 to plan their response to an attack on a church in Thoubal district. The Rev. S. Prim Vaiphei said a mob of 200 Hindus overpowered a police patrol and ....
April 15 (CDN) — April 15 (Compass) -- Hindu and Muslim villagers burned down a prayer hall and attacked three church members in a village in Kerala, India, on April 1. The attack came after 26 people were baptized in a discreet early morning ceremony. Two days ....
April 14 (CDN) — April 14 (Compass) -- An Indian court has charged Christian businessman Vidya Sagaran of Kerala state with attempted forced conversion under the Indian Penal Code. States without anti-conversion laws can use Section 153A of the Penal Code to address ....
April 14 (CDN) — April 14 (Compass) -- A priest in the east-Indian state of Bihar was brutally stabbed on Monday, April 11, when he refused to pay extortion money to an ex-prisoner. “Gyan Das demanded 100,000 rupees [$2,325] from Fr. Mathew. ... There was a scuffle ....
April 7 (CDN) — April 7 (Compass) -- The Hindu Jagran Manch activist group has claimed that 700 Christians were “reconverted” on April 2. However, some local newspapers said only 97 took part in the Hindu homecoming ceremony, while Christian leaders say those who ....
March 28 (CDN) — March 28 (Compass) -- The government of Chhattisgarh, India, plans to strengthen the state’s anti-conversion law following claims of increasing numbers of Christian converts. The pro-Hindu government believes the current law is not rigorously ....
March 21 (CDN) — March 21 (Compass) -- A study released in February by India’s National Minorities Commission (NCM) claims the percentage of Christians in north-east India had risen to “abnormally high” levels. Christian leaders rejected this claim and said the NCM ....
March 18 (CDN) — March 18 (Compass) -- Hindu extremists have violently assaulted several Christians in Rajasthan, India, in recent weeks. Bajrang Dal volunteers attacked eight members of the Friends Missionary Prayer Band on March 13, and falsely accused Pastor ....
March 15 (CDN) — March 15 (Compass) -- The defense attorney for a Christian evangelist arrested on charges of attempting to convert Hindus in India’s Orissa state appealed his client’s case to the Orissa High Court yesterday. The appeal exposes police negligence and ....
March 14 (CDN) — March 14 (Compass) -- Christians from a small Indian village will have their day in court on May 9 following a violent attack on a prayer meeting on February 23. Members of a radical Hindu group broke up the meeting and left several Christians badly ....
February 22 (CDN) — February 22 (Compass) -- On February 11, the body of 25-year-old Christian evangelist Pastor Narayan was found in the small town of Channapatana in Karnataka state, India. Doctors who performed an autopsy said Narayan had been brutally murdered -- ....
February 22 (CDN) — February 22 (Compass) -- Activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bajrang Dal beat and robbed 280 Christian students on February 19 while the group was on its way to Emmanuel Mission’s graduation ceremony in Kota, India. The 2:30 a.m. ....
February 18 (CDN) — February 18 (Compass) -- New information has emerged regarding last year’s kidnapping of Manulaben Dinana, the wife of an Indian pastor. Dinana, married to Pastor Dharmesh Ninama, was kidnapped in May 2004 by a group of Hindu fundamentalists. Her ....
February 17 (CDN) — February 17 (Compass) -- India’s Supreme Court has decided to study the legal implications of denying job and education quotas to Dalit Christians. Under the present quota system, approximately 26 percent of jobs and educational placements are ....
February 14 (CDN) — February 14 (Compass) -- A Hindu cleric in the Catholic village of Rajura, Maharashtra state, has insisted that tribal Christians turn their church into a Hindu temple or face violent consequences. “This morning I received news that the situation is ....
February 2 (CDN) — February 2 (Compass) -- The High Court of Gujarat, India, will hear an appeal in early February regarding the murder conviction of five tribal Christians who were sentenced to life imprisonment last year for killing a Hindu fundamentalist. The case ....
February 2 (CDN) — February 2 (Compass) -- The High Court of Gujarat, India, will hear an appeal in early February regarding the murder conviction of five tribal Christians who were sentenced to life imprisonment last year for killing a Hindu fundamentalist. The case ....
January 26 (CDN) — January 26 (Compass) -- An irate mob set fire to a newly-opened Catholic school in the northeast state of Assam, India, on January 19, accusing school staff of attempting to convert Hindus. A news report appearing in the Assam Tribune claimed that ....
January 26 (CDN) — January 26 (Compass) -- An irate mob set fire to a newly-opened Catholic school in the northeast state of Assam, India, on January 19, accusing school staff of attempting to convert Hindus. A news report appearing in the Assam Tribune claimed that ....
January 10 (CDN) — January 10 (Compass) -- India’s Supreme Court has asked the federal government why Dalits (or “Untouchables”) who convert to Christianity are denied access to a quota system for state employment. Under India’s caste system, about 26 percent of ....
December 9 (CDN) — December 9 (Compass) -- The arrest of one of India’s most revered Hindu leaders has led to accusations of a Christian conspiracy. Jayendra Saraswati was arrested in mid November and accused of conspiring to murder a temple priest. Hindu nationalist ....
November 30 (CDN) — November 30 (Compass) -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), desperately seeking its way back to federal power in India, is reverting to its anti-minority political platform of Hindu nationalism. If implemented, Christians and Muslims could face a ....
November 29 (CDN) — November 29 (Compass) -- A group of about 15 people attacked a church in the coastal town of Mangalore during Sunday worship on November 7. According to press reports, the mob barged into a hall belonging to the Jesus Bread of Life Ministry and ....
November 4 (CDN) — November 4 (Compass) -- While India’s constitution provides for freedom of religion, many Christians who convert from a Hindu background still face discrimination from family, friends, neighbors and employers. Some Hindus believe Christianity is a ....
November 2 (CDN) — November 2 (Compass) -- An Indian court recently charged five Christians with the crime of “wounding the religious feelings” of Hindus, after a complaint was lodged in the tribal belt of Orissa. The Christians were released on bail on October 28. ....
October 22 (CDN) — October 22 (Compass) -- At least 336 tribal Christians were “reconverted” to Hinduism in a mass ceremony organized by the World Hindu Council in Orissa, India, on October 17. Gauri Prasad Rath, state secretary of the Council, said it was the largest ....
October 12 (CDN) — October 12 (Compass) — Residents of Gurandi village, Orissa, dug up the body of a Catholic man on October 4 and ceremonially “reconverted” him to Hinduism, along with the living members of his family. The incident was triggered when Bala Tulasiga, a ....
October 12 (CDN) — October 12 (Compass) — Residents of Gurandi village, Orissa, dug up the body of a Catholic man on October 4 and ceremonially “reconverted” him to Hinduism, along with the living members of his family. The incident was triggered when Bala Tulasiga, a ....
October 7 (CDN) — October 7 (Compass) — Christians in Kerala have alleged that a ritual at a Hindu temple led to the murder of a 71-year-old Syrian Catholic priest. Father Job Chittilapilly was murdered on August 28, the day of Kerala’s annual harvest festival. ....
October 4 (CDN) — October 4 (Compass) — Four nuns and three brothers belonging to India’s most famous religious order, Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity, were attacked on September 25 by Hindu extremists in the southern state of Kerala. The incident took place ....
September 29 (CDN) — September 29 (Compass) — The World Hindu Council (VHP) has announced the “re-conversion” of 75 tribal Christians in the eastern state of Orissa on September 19. During the ceremony, prominent Hindu leaders distributed yellow headbands sprinkled with ....
August 31 (CDN) — August 31 (Compass) — A group of Christians have returned to their village in Orissa, India, six months after Hindu villagers shaved their heads bare. The Christians and their families lived for six months in sheltered housing provided by a church ....
August 18 (CDN) — July 13 (Compass) — Violence broke out between Hindu and Catholic villagers on June 16 in the small village of Devbag, Maharashtra, India, when a member of the local Roman Catholic parish council slapped the son of Anant Tari, a member of the ....
August 18 (CDN) — July 16 (Compass) — A Christian pastor and his associate, jailed for alleged violation of the state’s anti-conversion law, were released on bail July 14 after more than six weeks of incarceration in the state of Orissa, India. Subas Samal and ....
August 18 (CDN) — August 9 (Compass) — Following the defeat of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in this year’s national elections, Hindu fundamentalists have pressured the BJP to return to their Hindu nationalist roots. Activists from the radical Vishwa ....
August 9 (CDN) — August 9 (Compass) — Following the defeat of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in this year’s national elections, Hindu fundamentalists have pressured the BJP to return to their Hindu nationalist roots. Activists from the radical Vishwa ....
July 23 (CDN) — July 23 (Compass) — Tension has gripped the tribal village of Rohiyal Talal in the northwest state of Gujarat, India, after a mob of 15 local Hindu farmers desecrated a Christian church under construction in the hamlet. In an early-morning assault ....
July 16 (CDN) — July 16 (Compass) — A Christian pastor and his associate, jailed for alleged violation of the state’s anti-conversion law, were released on bail July 14 after more than six weeks of incarceration in the state of Orissa, India. Subas Samal and ....
July 13 (CDN) — July 13 (Compass) — Violence broke out between Hindu and Catholic villagers on June 16 in the small village of Devbag, Maharashtra, India, when a member of the local Roman Catholic parish council slapped the son of Anant Tari, a member of the ....
July 9 (CDN) — July 9 (Compass) — Hindu extremists who kidnapped the wife of a Christian pastor in India six weeks ago are still holding her captive. Local police have refused to make any attempt to find Manulaben Dinana, 23. They have also refused to question the ....
July 9 (CDN) — July 9 (Compass) — Hindu extremists who kidnapped the wife of a Christian pastor in India six weeks ago are still holding her captive. Local police have refused to make any attempt to find Manulaben Dinana, 23. They have also refused to question the ....
July 2 (CDN) — July 2 (Compass) — An Indian pastor brutally beaten in a night-time attack in West Tripura is still recovering from serious knife wounds. Letthang Gangte, a missionary of the Evangelical Congregational Church of India, received cuts to the head and ....
June 3 (CDN) — June 3 (Compass) -- Hindu villagers have accused Pastor Subas Samal and six other Christians from Kilipal village, in the state of Orissa, India, of “conversion by inducement” under the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act. Pastor Samal and his assistant ....
June 3 (CDN) — June 3 (Compass) -- India’s extremist organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has announced plans to establish a number of Raksha Sena or “Defense Army” groups in Chhatisgarh, central India. In a two-day training session held for ....
May 25 (CDN) — May 25 (Compass) -- On May 18, barely a week after India’s Congress party defeated the previous pro-Hindu government in national elections, Chief Minister Selvi J. Jayalalithaa of Tamil Nadu, in southern India, announced the repeal of the state’s ....
May 20 (CDN) — May 20 (Compass) -- Christians in India hailed the victory of Sonia Gandhi’s Congress Party in this month’s general election as a triumph for religious freedom. However on May 18, five days after the election results were announced, supporters of ....
May 19 (CDN) — May 19 (Compass) — Six people were arrested on May 3 in connection with a February 10 incident regarding residents of Kilipala village in Orissa state shaving the heads of a local pastor and eight Christian women. Tonsuring, or shaving the crown of ....
May 7 (CDN) — May 7 (Compass) — Indian officials have ordered Jim Borst, 67, of the U.K.-based Mill Hill Mission working in Kashmir since 1963, to leave the country on the pretext that his visa has not been renewed. In an April 22 letter, officials of the ....
April 22 (CDN) — April 22 (Compass) — Christians were apprehensive as voting began on April 20, the first day of India’s general elections. With the nation’s recent history of religious oppression, this year’s election could prove critical for the future of ....
March 15 (CDN) — March 15 (Compass) — Hindu fundamentalists of the Bajrang Dal in the state of Madhya Pradesh have accused Catholic priests of the rape and murder of a teenage girl on March 3. Catholic staff at Deosar Girls’ Boarding School reject these claims, ....
March 5 (CDN) — March 5 (Compass) — Christian leaders in India have responded with one voice to allegations made by the weekly newspaper Tehelka that Christians are carrying out “the conversion agenda of U.S. President George Bush,” and using the HIV/AIDS problem ....
February 27 (CDN) — February 27 (Compass) — Pastor Ram Prakash, from the Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, suffered beatings while in police custody in February, according to a report filed by Open Doors. Prakash was visiting Harish Chandra, a Christian relative who ....
February 17 (CDN) — February 17 (Compass) — Christian women from Orissa state, India, were attacked and humiliated for refusing to give up their faith. On February 6, Hindu extremists dragged eight women, including two 15-year-old girls, out of their homes while their ....
February 13 (CDN) — February 13 (Compass) — Tehelka, a weekly newspaper launched on January 30, accused the U.S. government of having a “conversion agenda” for India. The 11-page cover story in the inaugural issue portrayed Christian missionary work as a “sinister and ....
February 9 (CDN) — February 9 (Compass) — Hindu fundamentalists have launched an attack against the Catholic Church in India in the rural Catholic stronghold of Jhabua, Madhya Pradesh, and the more sophisticated region of Goa. The attacks are directly linked to ....
January 22 (CDN) — January 22 (Compass) — Citizens of Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh are enraged over the murder of a nine-year-old girl whose body was discovered in a mission school compound on January 13. Hindu protestors allege that Sujata, the daughter of a ....
January 21 (CDN) — January 21 (Compass) — “Anti-conversion” laws implemented in five Indian states are prejudiced against Christians, according to church leaders. One such law, passed in Tamil Nadu in October 2002, came after Seventh-day Adventist missionaries ....
January 19 (CDN) — January 19 (Compass) — Christian activist Anson Thomas has rescued scores of girls 18 years and younger from prostitution in Mumbai, India. Recently, brothel owners accused Thomas of “unlawfully converting” Hindu sex workers to Christianity. When a ....
January 12 (CDN) — (Compass) -- Leaders of the militant Hindu group Bajrang Dal plan to produce a film honoring Dara Singh, convicted murderer of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons. In November 2003, a week after prominent film-maker Sunil ....
December 30 (CDN) — (Compass) -- The Indian government has rejected demands that social benefits be extended to Dalit Christians and Muslims. A clause in the 1950 Constitution of India enshrined the right of Hindu Dalits to “social reservations” for jobs and ....
December 29 (CDN) — (Compass) -- India’s Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), known as the ”World Hindu Council,” held a re-conversion rally on Christmas Eve in Dangs district, south Gujarat. The VHP claimed that 500 members of tribal groups re-converted to Hinduism during the ....
December 15 (CDN) — (Compass) — Tension has gripped the Christian community in the Indian state of Orissa after Hindu militants unleashed a fresh wave of violence in the last week of November. A dozen members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Bajrang Dal broke into ....
December 15 (CDN) — (Compass) — One of India’s most vocal campaigners against Christianity was caught in a top-level corruption scandal in late November. Dilip Singh Judev, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests in the federal government, was trapped on ....
December 15 (CDN) — (Compass) — India’s Dalits, who have been virtually enslaved as “untouchables” for more than 2,000 years, have begun to come to Christ in large numbers. Upper caste Hindus have historically shown little interest in Dalit affairs; however, they are ....
November 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — Upcoming elections for local assemblies in five states in India have spurred a fresh intensity in political campaigns — and a growing division along religious lines as politicians use the issue of religion to polarize voters. Members of ....
November 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — Christians in Mumbai have suffered a number of recent attacks, most of them attributed to the Hindu fundamentalist groups Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal. On September 17, VHP activists disrupted a prayer meeting organized by ....
November 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — An angry mob attacked a group of some 80 Christians participating in a prayer meeting in the city of Roorkey, Uttaranchal, on October 26. Assailants tore apart banners, posters and tracts. They burned Bibles and damaged equipment at the ....
October 10 (CDN) — (Compass) — More than four years after the tragic murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, Philip, 11, and Timothy, 7, prime suspect Dara Singh and 12 others were convicted of the killings. Delivering the judgment to a packed ....
October 10 (CDN) — (Compass) — Dara Singh was awarded the death penalty by a designated Central Bureau of Investigation court on September 22 for his role in the murder of the Australian missionary Graham Stuart Staines and his two sons. Pronouncing the verdict before ....
October 10 (CDN) — (Compass) — After a mob of about 500 assailants attacked believers in the state of Orissa, Christian leaders said they fear more violence could erupt as a consequence of the September 22 death sentence handed down to Dara Singh for murdering ....
October 10 (CDN) — (Compass) — India’s coalition government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is about to introduce fresh rules to prevent religious conversion across the nation. Entitled “Change of Religion of the Members of SC/ST ....
October 10 (CDN) — (Compass) — The murder of Yesu Dasu, a 52-year-old Christian preacher and government employee who was beheaded on September 11, 2000, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, remains unsolved three years after his death. Investigators have ....
September 12 (CDN) — (Compass) — Hindu fundamentalists have increased their activities in Kerala, India’s “cradle of Christianity,” sparking fears that it may be next in a series of Indian states to adopt “anti-conversion” laws. Regarded as a safe haven for religious ....
September 12 (CDN) — (Compass) — Christian evangelist Yusi Hey Yobin was arrested August 21 in Shillong, Meghalaya, on charges of drug trafficking. Police raided Yobin’s home that day and claim to have found 380 grams of high-grade heroin. However, local Christians say ....
August 15 (CDN) — (Compass) -- The president of the Orissa Christian Legal Association, Mr. Pratap Chinchani, has filed a Special Leave Petition with the Supreme Court of India against Orissa state’s Freedom of Religion Act, a 1967 ruling prohibiting religious ....
August 15 (CDN) — (Compass) -- Police arrested a missionary and four church leaders after Christian groups in Nagaland were accused of forcing people of other faiths to convert to Christianity. Arrested in July in the neighboring state of Arunachal Pradesh, the five ....
August 15 (CDN) — (Compass) — When the cauldron of inter-religious tension boiled over in February 2002, Muslims in the state of Gujarat found themselves victims of “database genocide.” Surveys conducted on their community prior to the attacks allowed mobs of Hindu ....
August 15 (CDN) — (Compass) — On July 31, a group of about 250 Hindus attacked a church and Bible school in Dabwali, a small town in the Sirsa district, Haryana, India. Students at the Bible school sustained injuries; among them were five female students. A local ....
July 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — Church leaders have expressed regret over the United States government’s refusal to designate India a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) due to religious violence and discrimination occurring in the world’s largest democracy. “We ....
July 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — They are calling it “serial persecution.” Christians in the state of Karnataka have never faced it before. During a one-day public hearing organized by the All India Christian Council on June 12, a “jury” heard 50 cases of persecution. ....
July 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — Politically generated hate propaganda against Christians has charged the atmosphere in India, inspiring at least three attacks on Christians in June. Hindu fundamentalists joined activists from the ruling BJP political party to disrupt a ....
July 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — The Gujarat High Court has dismissed petitions filed by the All India Christian Council (AICC) challenging provisions of the highly controversial Gujarat anti-conversion bill, on the grounds that the petitions are premature. On June 30, ....
June 16 (CDN) — (Compass) — The government of India’s Gujarat state has again started gathering community-based information in villages of the Patan district, heightening suspicions among local Christians that census information will be misused by fundamentalist ....
June 16 (CDN) — (Compass) — Suspected Islamic extremists in the Indian state of Kashmir killed a nun in a grenade attack on a Catholic school. Sister Kamlesh, a missionary teacher from West Bengal, died when a grenade exploded on May 22 near the main entrance of ....
May 19 (CDN) — (Compass) — In Delhi, the capital of India, Christians constitute one percent of the 12.5 million population. For decades, they have been regarded as peace-loving and service oriented. Not anymore. Ever since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata ....
May 19 (CDN) — (Compass) — Christians in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are gearing up to challenge the constitutionality of “anti-conversion” bills recently implemented in their respective states, after the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) demanded that a ....
May 19 (CDN) — (Compass) — Hindu nationalists staged a humiliating attack on April 10 against Catholic nuns operating a secondary school in a Bombay suburb. Political activist Mrs. Sujata Ghag led a group of 15 women into the administrative office of Holy Cross ....
April 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — Christian sources in India believe that anti-conversion legislation passed in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat states has emboldened militant Hindu groups to target churches and Christian institutions. On March 10, Hindu fundamentalists set fire ....
April 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — The Christian community in western India’s Gujarat state has been the target of three government surveys conducted through the Criminal Investigation Department apparently in preparation for the anti-conversion bill passed on March 26 by ....
April 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — The anti-conversion bill which passed the Gujarat state assembly on March 26 is being challenged by lawmakers and Christians alike, who claim the bill is unconstitutional. The controversial legislation seeks to prevent religious ....
April 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — A Protestant church in Maharashtra state was attacked on March 12, and death threats were leveled against local Christians. The 10-year-old Pata Fellowship Church in the village of Patapaypangara has 22 members and has lived in peace ....
March 14 (CDN) — (Compass) -- Following its investigation into the January attack on U.S. missionary Joseph Cooper, the Confederation of Human Rights Organization has concluded that a local unit of the fundamentalist Hindu Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) plotted ....
March 14 (CDN) — (Compass) -- Spurred by a call to amend the constitution and declare India a “Hindu nation,” fundamentalists have stepped up attacks against Christians. “I think we stand for Hindutva (nationalist Hinduism) and not for government,” said World Hindu ....
February 11 (CDN) — (Compass) -- Four years after the brutal murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, their murder trial took a bizarre turn when a Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) officer testifying for the prosecution declared that none ....
February 11 (CDN) — (Compass) -- When American missionary Joseph Cooper was attacked and then deported from India, it brought attention to visa regulations. At least 50 missionaries could be deported in the near future if government authorities act on a list of names ....
January 13 (CDN) — (Compass) — Leading information technology companies in the United States suspended donations to an American-based charity following reports that the organization channeled the funds to militant Hindu groups for use in propaganda campaigns targeting ....
January 13 (CDN) — (Compass) — Fundamentalist Hindus won a landslide victory in a state election in India with anti-Christian and anti-Muslim rhetoric. Defying every poll forecast, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, won 126 ....
January 13 (CDN) — (Compass) — Six persons, including a 10-year-old girl, were seriously injured when masked men armed with guns and grenades attacked worshippers at a Christmas Eve Mass in the West Bengal city of Tehatta. The Bengali-speaking gang arrived at the ....
December 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — Violence against Christians has risen sharply over the past months in India. In the early hours of November 2, an armed gang suspected of links with Hindu militants attacked the Convent of St. Mary of the Angels in Parthibanoor, Tamil ....
December 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — Ian Stillman, a missionary working with the deaf, was freed from an Indian prison on the afternoon of December 7. A member of the Baptist Church in Reading, United Kingdom, Stillman was arrested on August 30, 2000, in the foothills of ....
December 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — The Chief Superintendent of Prisons at Pondicherry Central Jail, G. David, is facing a judicial inquiry after he was accused of forcibly converting inmates to Christianity. The Munanni Hindu fundamentalist group is demanding the ....
December 14 (CDN) — (Compass) — Three weeks after becoming law, the Tamil Nadu Anti-Conversion Act was already being misused. Sivan Seyal, a Hindu, accused Pastor Paul Manickam of constructing a new church near his house without permission of the local authorities. ....
November 15 (CDN) — (Compass) — A recent spate of ethnic cleansing against Muslims in Gujarat state reached genocidal proportions, and a similar assault may soon be unleashed against India’s most threatened Christian community, the Dang tribe, unless the central ....
November 15 (CDN) — (Compass) — Accusations of sexual abuse and severe corporal punishment lodged against teachers at missionary schools in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan state, northern India, have surfaced simultaneously with attempts to reconvert Christian families ....
November 15 (CDN) — (Compass) — More than 6,000 church-operated educational institutions in the state of Tamil Nadu remained closed on October 24 and over a million Christians participated in fasting and prayer in protest against a bill known as the Prohibition of ....
October 11 (CDN) — (Compass) — On September 22, eight Korean missionaries, including six women, were mercilessly beaten in the city of Patna, in Bihar state, by militant Bajrang Dal activists. The Hindu militants were keeping track of the evangelistic activities of ....
October 11 (CDN) — (Compass) — The Indian church is being seriously threatened by government attempts to abolish minority rights and enact legislation against conversions. India’s federal government, led by the pro-Hindu BJP party, is opposed to the concept of ....
October 11 (CDN) — (Compass) — Money raised by Hindu organizations in Western countries is being used to fund aggression against Christians and other minorities in India. Non-profit organizations associated with Hindu extremist organizations collected nearly one ....
September 13 (CDN) — (Compass) -- Tension between the Christian and Sikh communities flared after 22 Sikhs converted to Christianity in India’s newly formed Chattisgarh state. A senior Sikh leader urged church leaders to stop evangelistic outreaches and accused ....
September 13 (CDN) — (Compass) -- On July 22, Sister Lucela Lakra of the Adoration Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was viciously attacked by a group of Hindu youth while on her way to church in the northeastern state of Assam. The assailants accused the nun of ....
September 13 (CDN) — (Compass) -- Christians living in Maharashtra state, the ideological source point of Hindu fundamentalism, are being lambasted by a media campaign featuring daily headlines of mass conversions to Christianity. Since the beginning of August, the ....
August 9 (CDN) — (Compass) — On July 18, a Catholic nun was sentenced to six months imprisonment for converting Hindus to Christianity. Sister Vrishi Ekka, a 56-year old Ursuline nun, was jailed in Ambikapur in the central Indian state of Chattisgarh on charges of ....
August 9 (CDN) — (Compass) — On June 12, Gladys Staines, widow of Australian missionary Graham Staines, made her first appearance in the district court of Orissa in the trial of those accused of the brutal murder of her husband. Eleven of the accused, including ....
August 9 (CDN) — (Compass) — India’s ruling political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has gone public with its anti-Christian agenda. On July 29, BJP Vice-President Kailashpati Mishra accused Christian missionaries of provoking large-scale violence in the ....
July 18 (CDN) — (Compass) — Over 5,000 Christians have been reconverted to Hinduism by the militant World Hindu Council (Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or VHP) during the past two years, the VHP revealed in mid June. The VHP is an organization that is increasingly being ....
July 18 (CDN) — (Compass) — Indian Christians are uniting votes with Muslims in Dhumka to defeat a Hindu extremist candidate in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) heartland state of Jharkhand. Christians in Dhumka mobilized during the last week of June and ....
July 18 (CDN) — (Compass) — Raping Christian women during riots, selling Christian girls into the flesh trade, recruiting doctors to dispense poisoned drugs and assassinating anti-caste activists — these are only four of 34 anti-Christian tactics recommended in a ....
June 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - Janet and Robert Baker, with mixed British and Indian ancestry, fled to the United Kingdom in May 2001. Hindu activists in India who objected to the couple’s fervent Christianity had threatened and attacked the family repeatedly since ....
June 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - The much-delayed trial in the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons resumed on May 3. A prosecution witness identified Dara Singh, the prime suspect, as the instigator of the crime, along with three other ....
June 12 (CDN) — (Compass) - Hindu fundamentalists registered a case against the Rev. Niranjan Bardhan in Orissa state in late April, accusing him of converting poor children by giving them food, clothes and study materials. But Bardhan told Compass, «They are just ....
May 13 (CDN) — (Compass) - The World Hindu Organization (VHP) is secretly conducting large-scale conversion drives in India’s Marxist-ruled state of West Bengal. More than 16 tribal Christians were forced to re-convert to Hinduism on April 22 at a purification ....
May 13 (CDN) — (Compass) - An armed group of about 60 Hindu fundamentalists attacked the Protestant charismatic New Life Fellowship Church in Moodabidari in India’s Karnataka state on Sunday, April 14. The Hindu militants accused worshippers of converting local ....
May 13 (CDN) — (Compass) - Shocking slogans have surfaced on the walls of Ahmedabad, Gujarat state’s capital city and economic center, calling for the ethnic cleansing of Christians after Muslims have been wiped out. Gujarat, which has gained worldwide infamy as ....
April 19 (CDN) — (Compass) - Around 40 Christians of the New Life Fellowship (NLF) had gathered for worship on February 8 at the home of a new believer in Nagpur, in India’s Maharashtra state, when a mob of over 500 people surrounded them and started pelting them ....
April 19 (CDN) — (Compass) - In a bizarre twist to the Staines murder case, an accomplice has told the court that he alone was involved in the killing, and that the prime suspect, Dara Singh, and all others accused were innocent. Mahendra Hembram confessed to his ....
April 19 (CDN) — (Compass) - Fresh controversy over the thorny issue of religious conversion in India erupted during the sixth national round of talks between the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Christian leaders when RSS chief K.S. Sudarshan ....
March 15 (CDN) — (Compass) - On February 22, a senior member of the Legislative Council, G. Madhusudan, accused Christian missionaries of “spying” for the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States. Hindu fundamentalists are “leaving no stone unturned, no ....
March 15 (CDN) — (Compass) - Two Christian missionaries and a new believer working in the newly created state of Jharkand who were kidnapped on February 11 have been released. Sources said that Gospel For Asia (GFA) workers were abducted by anti-Christian forces ....
March 15 (CDN) — (Compass) - A violent mob of over 80 men brandishing knives, iron rods and bricks went on a rampage that destroyed the Holy Family Church and terrorized worshippers on February 17 in Mysore, Karnataka state. Four persons had to be rushed to the ....
February 15 (CDN) — (Compass) - Churches and shrines in different parts of India faced a renewed spate of vandalism in January. A popular shrine maintained by the Sisters of Charity on Hennur Road in Bangalore, frequented by Christians as well as people of other ....
February 15 (CDN) — (Compass) - Indian Christians are appalled that the alleged murderer of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons is standing for election to the state legislative assembly. Dara Singh, currently in prison in Orissa state, is a candidate ....
February 15 (CDN) — (Compass) - A deaf, 51-year-old Christian charity worker from the United Kingdom, Ian Stillman, lost his appeal of drug smuggling charges in January and faces 10 years in prison in India. “It is the worst miscarriage of justice I have dealt with,” ....
December 14 (CDN) — (Compass) - Leaders of the militant Hindu umbrella organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), met church leaders on November 27 for the fifth round of talks at the national level, ironically a week before the RSS was set to release a ....
December 14 (CDN) — (Compass) - As Christians in Bangalore, capital city of the southern state of Karnataka, unite and lobby for seats in local government elections, Christians in the northern state of Punjab formed the first Christian political party in India. The ....
December 14 (CDN) — (Compass) - The Hindu fundamentalist government is planning to introduce two bills that are being condemned as \"draconian\" by religious minorities in India. The Christian community has taken strong exception to one bill, the Foreign Contribution ....
November 16 (CDN) — (Compass) - Indian Christians have begun to take advantage of traditional \"Christian strongholds\" as an opportunity for political action. Christians in Bangalore, the \"evangelical capital\" of India, have revolted against the Congress Party and ....
November 16 (CDN) — (Compass) - On October 26, a gang of youths belonging to militant Hindu organizations ransacked a hall where a gospel convention was taking place at Bhatinda in the Punjab region. One of those leading the Hindu protests said that they had sabotaged ....
November 16 (CDN) — (Compass) - Between 50,000 and 100,000 outcast Hindus descended on New Delhi on Sunday, November 4, to participate in a historic anti-caste political rally. Thousands of participants repudiated the oppression of the Hindu caste system by converting ....
November 16 (CDN) — (Compass) - In what is being regarded as a severe setback to recent talks between Hindu fundamentalists and church leaders in India, RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) chief K.S. Sudarshan has demanded that Christians reinterpret their Scriptures. ....
October 19 (CDN) — (Compass) - Various Christian organizations have criticized recent attempts at dialogue between Hindu fundamentalist organizations and Christian churches in India. The Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) had met the militant Rashtriya ....
October 19 (CDN) — (Compass) - Incidents of violence against Christian workers in northern India continue to be reported despite talks between the leaders of the mainline churches and Hindu fundamentalist organizations. On September 11, Christian booklets were burned ....
October 19 (CDN) — (Compass) - Valuable church properties in the state of Bihar in northern India are under threat of seizure from communal elements backed by forces in the state government. Christian missionaries and church leaders in Patna, the capital of Bihar, ....
September 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - Three Catholic nuns escorting orphan children on a picnic were severely beaten with sticks and cudgels by over 30 Hindu activists in Dahod town of Gujarat state on August 25. On August 13, another nun and a missionary were beaten by ....
September 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - Catholic church leaders met on August 21 with chiefs of the Hindu fundamentalist Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) in what is being seen as one of the most significant developments since the persecution of Christians in India began under ....
September 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - On August 15, statements made by India’s Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during a book release gathering startled Christians in India. \"There is a conversion motive behind the welfare activities being carried out by some Christian ....
August 24 (CDN) — (Compass) - Nineteen villagers who recently embraced Christianity have been forced to re-convert to Hinduism in the Kendrapada district in India’s Orissa state after undergoing sustained social ostracism from their fellow villagers. They are also ....
August 24 (CDN) — (Compass) - India’s pro-Hindu government is seriously considering a bill seeking a ban on religious conversion throughout the country. The bill brought protests from opposition parties and Christian organizations all over the country on July 27. The ....
August 24 (CDN) — (Compass) - Three separate incidents of violence took place against Christians in India during the first week of August. Four Hindu fundamentalists shot a Catholic nun at point-blank range in Madhya Pradesh on August 7. She is alive but in critical ....
July 20 (CDN) — (Compass) - A militant Hindu hate website displaying the names of international evangelists, secular and Christian scholars from India, and other «enemies of Hinduism» on its «hit-list» was back on-line after it was salvaged by a radical Jewish ....
July 20 (CDN) — (Compass) - Villagers in India’s Goa region have begun their battle against a Hindu extremist takeover of primary education. When schools reopened on June 6 after the summer vacation, the villagers organized to form the Committee for the Protection ....
July 20 (CDN) — (Compass) - The Bajrang Dal, a militant Hindu organization, has begun in late June to train its members in armed warfare to combat the threat of «instability to the nation» posed by Christian missionaries and ISI agents (Pakistan Intelligence). ....
July 20 (CDN) — (Compass) - One of the greatest triumphs of indigenous missionary activity in recent years has been the conversion of animist tribals to Christianity in the Dangs district of India’s Gujarat state. Christianity in the Dangs is about a century old. ....
June 15 (CDN) — (Compass) - Police and civil authorities in India’s Gujarat state remained mute spectators as a violent mob led by Hindu militants blocked the burial of an Indian Christian on May 28 in Kapadwanj. His family had decided to bury him at the local ....
June 15 (CDN) — (Compass) - The Indian government is receiving increasing criticism for its attempts to scuttle a discussion on the caste system during the upcoming World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. On May 7, a group of 40 prominent ....
June 15 (CDN) — (Compass) - Christian aboriginals in Goa state were suddenly deprived in late May of benefits leading to higher education as the pro-Hindu coalition government removed their names from a list to receive state benefits as underprivileged communities. ....
June 15 (CDN) — (Compass) - Tens of thousands of Christians demonstrated throughout northeast India’s Manipur state and neighboring states to protest the killing of three Catholic missionaries. Suspected separatist militants gunned down the Salesian priests outside ....
May 18 (CDN) — (Compass) - India is close to being labeled a «country of particular concern» for violating religious freedom and failing to safeguard the rights of religious minorities, according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. It called ....
May 18 (CDN) — (Compass) - Christian volunteer groups working in the worst areas of earthquake-hit Gujarat state in western India and who have been targeted by Hindu fundamentalists are taking a stand against the attacks. In an emergency meeting called on April 4, ....
May 18 (CDN) — (Compass) - The sentencing of 10 men who gang-raped four nuns is being hailed as significant for the church in India. The men were sentenced on April 28 to life in prison for the attack, which occurred before dawn on September 23, 1998, at the ....
April 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - Christian leaders in India are divided over a controversial move by the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) to arrange a \"dialogue\" with the Sangh Parivar, a group of radical Hindu organizations accused of perpetrating violence ....
April 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - Indian Christians from Dalit (untouchable) and other backward castes will have their identities permanently erased and state benefits withdrawn if the registrar general of India, and Census Commissioner Mr. Jayant K. Banthia, have their ....
April 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - Police arrested three members of a group of Hindu militants suspected of burning a Bible during a March 22 Christian prayer meeting in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. A group of 16 people stormed the dais, slapped the ....
April 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - The murder trial of Dara Singh in the deaths of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons floundered on its second day. A key prosecution witness did an about-face April 4 claiming that the police forced him to sign the First ....
April 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - Students from Nirmala Niketan, a Bombay-based Catholic institution and India’s prestigious College of Social Work for women, have complained that they were constantly harassed by various outfits of the Sangh Parivar while on a relief ....
March 23 (CDN) — (Compass) - A fundamentalist Hindu mob attacked a church in the eastern Indian state of Tripura on February 25 as Christians were attending the Sunday service. The mob forced the pastor to stop the service. Fundamentalist Hindus are adamant that ....
March 23 (CDN) — (Compass) - The trial of Dara Singh, the main suspect in the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, has begun in the Indian state of Orissa. After several delays, the trial began on March 1 with witnesses testifying ....
February 16 (CDN) — (Compass) - The Dalai Lama disappointed India’s Christians by standing alongside Hindu extremists and rebuking Christians and Muslims for trying to convert others to their religions. \"I always believe it’s safer and better and reasonable to keep ....
January 19 (CDN) — (Compass) - Members of the radical Hindu group the Bajrang Dal beat two Christian workers, David Massey and Simon Sakria, for more than two hours on January 4 for showing a Jesus film in Jehra, a remote village on the Rajasthan-Gujarat border in ....
January 19 (CDN) — (Compass) - A prominent Indian church leader is warning of a possible bloodbath against Christians by Hindu fundamentalists. Joseph D’Souza, president of the All India Christian Council, said that although everything seems quiet on the surface, the ....
December 15 (CDN) — (Compass) - Nearly 200 members of two extremist Hindu organizations stormed the Evangelical Church of India in Gujarat state on November 26. The Christian community expressed shock at the desecration of the church and the attempt to take possession ....
December 15 (CDN) — (Compass) - Violence has once again broken out against Christians in India after K.S. Sudershan, leader of the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), called for the Indianization of the national Christian church and Islam. One of the RSS ....
November 17 (CDN) — (Compass) - The Evangelical Fellowship of India has issued a statement urging Christian leaders to tone down \"spiritual battle\" language. They hope to prevent Hindu fundamentalist groups from taking advantage of inflammatory words to paint ....
November 17 (CDN) — (Compass) - Following new attacks on Christians by members of Hindu fundamentalist groups, church leaders in India are expressing concern that the Orissa state government is anti-minority. The general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of ....
October 20 (CDN) — (Compass) - Hindu groups in the Indian state of West Bengal are trying to exploit an incident involving a Catholic nun associated with the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa. The controversy began after Sister Francesca admitted on ....
October 20 (CDN) — (Compass) - On October 2, a special court in Orissa convicted a 13-year-old boy in connection with the brutal murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in January 1999. A special Central Bureau of Investigation judge sentenced ....
October 20 (CDN) — (Compass) - The Hindu fundamentalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) plans to hold a three-day meeting in the Indian city of Agra to discuss the role of foreign Christian missionaries in the country. Nearly 75,000 members of the RSS are expected ....
September 22 (CDN) — (Compass) - A Catholic church in northern Karnataka province was desecrated on September 7. Police said vandals broke into the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bidar, broke glass panes encasing a statue of Mary and sprinkled vermilion on the statue. ....
September 22 (CDN) — (Compass) - In a September 1 report, the National Commission for Minorities said that during its interaction with members of minority communities in Gujarat, Christians had complained of attacks on their right to freedom of religion. The Commission ....
August 18 (CDN) — (Compass) - The working president of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Ashok Singhal, told a gathering of Hindu priests in New Delhi on July 30 that the motive of Christians is not the welfare of people. He said Christians were working under a ....
July 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - Christian leaders in India have refused to attend a meeting organized by the National Minority Commission in New Delhi with Hindu political groups Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Church leaders said that the church is ready for ....
June 23 (CDN) — (Compass) - Christians in India continue to be harassed and persecuted. According to church leaders, the Sangh Parivar (family of Hindu fundamentalist groups) sponsors much of it in Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. These states have become the laboratory ....
May 19 (CDN) — (Compass) - Hindu fundamentalists have stepped up their attacks against Christians in the Indian states of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. In the latest incident, masked men attacked nuns on May 2 in the town of Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh and ....
April 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - Ten attackers armed with sticks, knives and iron rods broke into the Christ Vihar Hindi-Medium Primary School in India’s Uttar Pradesh state on March 31. They beat, threatened and robbed Father Skylark George, a 27-year-old priest who ....
April 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - A civic group in India is expressing concern over the growing \"fascist tendency\" in Indian political and civil society. A statement issued in New Delhi on April 2 by the Insaani Ekta Muhim said the increased attacks by Hindu ....
April 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - A court in India has refused bail to Dara Singh, accused in the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in January 1999. Singh was remanded to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Singh is said to have a ....
March 17 (CDN) — (Compass) - The Gujarat state government withdrew the controversial 1999 Gujarat Freedom of Religion Bill on February 23 after Christians and other groups protested against it. The government was also under pressure to scrap the bill after ....
March 17 (CDN) — (Compass) - The Indian government on February 27 rejected a United States report on religious freedom that criticized the ruling Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) for societal violence against Christians and Muslims. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry ....
February 18 (CDN) — (Compass) - Police in Madhya Pradesh watched as fundamentalist Hindus attacked the Christian nephew of Arun Shourie, a prominent journalist and member of India’s upper house of Parliament. Chandrakant Shourie, his wife, their son and some friends ....
February 18 (CDN) — (Compass) - Christians in India welcomed the arrest of Dara Singh, the mastermind behind the killing of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in January 1999. Singh was captured on January 31 after eluding authorities for more than a ....
February 18 (CDN) — (Compass) - The Gujarat state assembly plans to debate a controversial conversion bill aimed at Christians in its current February-March session. The Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act, introduced by a Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) Assembly member in ....
January 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - Hindu fundamentalist demonstrators threatened members of a Campus Crusade center on Christmas Day in Palam Vihar village. The demonstrations continued until December 27 and stopped only after police intervention. The Hindu groups have ....
