by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - A Christian leader in India’s Uttar Pradesh state has reported to the International Christian Concern aid organization that at least 57 Christians have now been imprisoned in the state on false charges of forcibly converting Hindus to Christianity.
According to local ICC sources, whose names are withheld for security reasons, a group of eight Christian women and one Christian man were arrested and imprisoned after Hindu nationalist opposed their prayer meeting in Azamgarh district.
“Local sources said a mob of anti-Christian assailants stormed into the tent adjacent to the house and started to rip off the tent and break plastic chairs and other furniture used in the tent being used for the prayer gathering,” ICC reported on the Azamgarh incident. “The mob also threatened the Christians to renounce their faith in Jesus or face dire consequences, including losing their crops and farming land.”
In another incident, eleven Christians from the Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh were arrested and jailed on false conversion charges. The wife of the pastor who visited the Christians told ICC: “The situation is very dangerous for Christians in the entire area where we are living now, since there is absolutely no freedom to gather and worship. If we want to worship, we need to be ready to go to jail; that is what happened to my husband and his congregation,” she said.
According to ICC, there are at least 57 Christians imprisoned in Uttar Pradesh, with 155 incidents of violent attacks on Christians having taken place in the state in the first half of this year alone.
Ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party since 2014, India ranks 11th on the US Open Doors World Watch List 2023 of the top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.