Police in eastern India have opened a criminal investigation into the disappearance of an official report on the killing of about 100 Christians and the destruction of hundreds of church buildings in 2008.
Six Naga men taken hostage in India's northeastern state of Manipur, two of them pastors, were found dead on June 10, their remains reportedly mutilated. More than a week later, their bodies have still not been handed over to their families.
In central India’s Chhattisgarh state, followers of tribal religion in Bastar District recently dug up the grave of a tribal Christian buried 20 years before. They unearthed his skeleton, burned it and scattered the ashes.
They arrived waving Indian flags and clutching schoolbooks. Many wore cockroach masks. The placards were satirical; the anger was not. On June 6, crowds gathered at Jantar Mantar as what many commentators are calling India’s first Gen Z political uprising moved from smartphone screens onto a street. Jantan Mantar is New Delhi’s designated public protest zone, historically the gathering point for the country’s largest anti-corruption and farmers’ demonstrations.
On the morning of May 10, members of a Hindu nationalist organization arrived at Christian Sunday worship services in several neighborhoods of Dhamtari, Chhattisgarh state, India.
Three Baptist pastors were shot dead in an ambush in India’s northeastern state of Manipur on Wednesday, May 13, while traveling home from an interchurch peace conference focused on easing tensions between tribal Christian communities in the conflict-hit state. At least five others were wounded.
When India’s Election Commission declared results on May 4 across four states and one Union Territory, the numbers told one story. The pattern behind them told another.
Three years after ethnic violence erupted in India’s northeastern state of Manipur, more than 300 church buildings have been destroyed and at least 217 people killed by official count, with broader estimates exceeding 260.
Voting has concluded across five regions in India’s most closely watched regional elections in years.
A U.S. advisory body for the first time has called for targeted sanctions against a major Hindu nationalist group, accusing it of systematic violations of religious freedom.
Bangladesh’s new government has prompted cautious optimism among Christian leaders, who say recent political changes offer a potential opening for greater religious freedom even as concerns remain over security, justice and political pressure.
Nepal’s Christian leaders say they are cautiously hopeful after the Rastriya Swatantra Party’s landslide election victory, even as past actions by some party figures raise concerns about religious freedom and churches renew calls for equal rights, burial grounds and an end to false legal cases.
