Two Nepalese churches were vandalised
An attack on a church in Nepal’s Lumbini Province on Monday was just the latest in a string of recent violence against Christians in the country. The church is in the southern Nawalparasi district of Lumbini along the border with India’s Uttar Pradesh state and was one of two churches in the same town that were vandalized over the weekend.
Photos and videos reviewed by International Christian Concern (ICC) showed broken windows and other signs of violence around the property, including damage to fencing and a broken motorbike. Another photo shared on social media showed two men, identified as pastors, being assaulted on the street. Gathered locals appear to have smeared the pastors’ faces with a sticky black substance in an act described by ICC contacts as a cultural sign of hatred and disrespect.
ICC has learned that the attacks in Lumbini are the sixth and seventh such attacks against churches in Nepal in the last two weeks. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” a Nepalese civil society leader said about the recent spate of attacks. Perpetrators, seeing little to no response from the authorities in recent weeks, “are encouraged to act more,” he told ICC.
News of another incident of men assaulting Christians, this time in Janakpur, emerged on Tuesday as word of Monday’s attack on the two pastors spread.
Source: persecution.org
