Supporters of All India Christian Council pray during a rally in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, May 29, 2007. The activists demanded protection from violence by right-wing Hindu organizations and safeguarding of their religious rights. | (Photo: AP / Gurinder Osan)
As part of Hindu nationalists’ ongoing campaign to stop India’s tribal, or indigenous, people from converting to Christianity, a rightwing Hindu leader has demanded that all churches be closed down in a district in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
Azad Prem Singh, a leader of the Hindu nationalist group the Vishwa Hindu Parishad or the World Hindu Council, handed over a memorandum to the administrative head of Jhabua district, demanding that all churches be banned in tribal areas, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported Sunday.
Christians meet near their rebuilt church in Kandhamal. In 2008, almost every church in the area was destroyed by Hindu nationalists. | John Fredricks
Three unidentified men shot and killed a pastor in the east Indian state of Jharkhand while he was returning home with his wife after baptizing new believers, according to a report.
Pastor Salim Stephen Surin, a part-time evangelist in Rania village of Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district, was killed on Dec. 8, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported Friday.
“They killed my husband in front of my own eyes,” Tarsis, the wife of the slain pastor, was quoted as saying. “I was terrified seeing my husband collapse having been shot in the chest. I started to think about my children and loudly cried out to God to save me and take care of my [two] children.”