India has witnessed a significant rise in violence against Christians this year with 305 incidents recorded across 21 states during the past nine months. Surprisingly, official cognizance of the targeted violence was lax with only 30 complaints registered by police so far.
September had the highest number of incidents with 69, followed by 50 in August, 37 in January, 33 in July, 27 each in March, April and June, 20 in February and 15 in May. These figures were published in a fact-finding report by the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) and United Against Hate and United Christian Forum (UCF) and released at a press conference in New Delhi on Oct. 21
Christian Prio Sadhana Lanse and her daughters Pearl and Eva from Roorkee presented horrific details of the attack they suffered.
Eva recalled how an armed mob of around 200 shouting slogans like “Jai Shri Ram” (Hail Lord Ram) and “Vande Mataram” (I bow to thee, motherland) barged in, vandalized a prayer house and manhandled the Christian faithful on Oct. 3.
“We feel unsafe there and fear for our lives,” she said, adding that police made no arrests despite naming the main attackers in their complaints with evidence of the violence and destruction they caused.
Uttar Pradesh in northern India ruled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) topped the list with 66 incidents of attacks this year, followed by Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh (47), tribal people’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-ruled Jharkhand (30) and BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh (26).
Karnataka in the south, also ruled by the BJP, witnessed a spurt in violence against Christians with 32 incidents.