Radical Hindu nationalists vandalised a church in Northern India

International Christian Concern (ICC) reports that on the 16th of February, members of the Akhila Bharathiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the ruling Bharathiya Janata Party (BJP), vandalised a church in India’s Uttar Pradesh state. When local Christians reported the incident to police, authorities did little to investigate the crime.
Pastor Simon Prasad, head of the Pastors’ Association of Bareilly, told the local media that members of the ABVP vandalised Sadar Methodist Church in Barely in an effort to stoke communal tensions. Nationalist slogans were repeatedly painted across the doors and walls of Bareilly’s oldest church.
On the 17th of February, Pastor Prasad and other church members attempted to report the incident to local police. However, police officers attempted to block the submission of the complaint, telling the Christian victims that nothing had happened. Only after pictures of the vandalism were produced did the police agree to investigate the matter.
Later that day, police went to Sadar Methodist Church and questioned Pastor Prasad regarding where he receives his salary and how he manages to feed his family. Pastor Prasad was shocked to see that the police did little to investigate the vandalism complaint.
Source: persecution.org