A new report has revealed that in India, 135 cases of persecution occurred in the first half of 2020. These included a lynching, community ostracisation, and the sodomisation and murder of two Christian men. According to a new report from the Delhi-based Evangelical Fellowship of India, amid the coronavirus pandemic lockdown, Christians faced more opposition than ever from their communities because of their faith, primarily at the hands of Hindu extremists. Between January and June, numerous reports surfaced of Christians being falsely accused, threatened, and attacked.
Uttar Pradesh, ruled by the Bhartiya Janata Party, topped the persecution scale with 32 cases of hate crimes. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in India, with nearly 200 million people. However, only about 350,000 Christians live in the state.
In Odisha’s Kenduguda village in Malkangiri district, a 14-year-old Christian boy was allegedly crushed to death with a stone by a group of people who then chopped the body into pieces before burying the remains in several places. In the report, police noted the victim and his family had adopted Christianity three years before the murder.
In Tamil Nadu, a Christian father and son were tortured, sodomised with rods, and murdered by local police. In Chhattisgarh, there were six documented cases of targeted violence against Christians in April alone, despite the national lockdown being in place.
In Bastar and Dantewada districts, Christians faced stiff opposition to bury their dead, and in Jharkhand, Christian women were sexually assaulted and others socially ostracized. In Pundiguttu village, Christian converts were ordered to renounce their faith or risk being denied water from the community well and other penalties.
The report also cited incidents of persecution against other religious minorities, including Muslims. In June, groups of young men in East Delhi district were directed by their handlers to kill members of the minority Muslim community, the report found. Additionally, mosques were burned to the ground and academic institutions and small shops destroyed.
Currently, eight out of twenty-nine states in India have adopted anti-conversion laws that seek to prevent any person from converting or attempting to convert another person, either directly or otherwise, through “forcible” or “fraudulent” means, or by “allurement” or “inducement.” However, such laws are often used by Hindu extremists as an excuse to disrupt church services and harass Christians.
Concluding the report, EFI appealed to the government of India and the leaders of the states named in the report to ”ensure the rule of law and the security of religious minorities in India.”
Source: christianpost.com
