A nine-year-old girl from an Indian family that had recently converted to Christianity was gang-raped and murdered on Sunday, 5 August, in Punjab State. Anjali Masih was playing with her friends in the city of Gurdaspur, near the Pakistan border, when a group of men lured her away by showing her a guava.

She was then gang-raped and strangled with a telephone wire.

Local Christians told World Watch Monitor that there has been a rise in anti-Christian feeling in the area, which is predominantly Hindu and Sikh, since a number of families converted to Christianity.

One Christian, who did not wish to be named, suggested the brutal attack could have been carried out by people wanting to discourage others from changing religions. India has seen a wave of anti-Christian violence in recent years, with a notable increase since Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP came to power in 2014.

Church leaders in the southern Indian State of Tamil Nadu have expressed condolences at the death of Muthuvel Karunanidhi, a five-time state chief minister who supported freedom of religion despite being an atheist.

Karunanidhi died on Aug. 7 of an age-related illness in a hospital in state capital Chennai. He was 94.

The self-proclaimed atheist politician “always had a soft corner for religious minorities and especially for Christians whether in power or not,” said Father Vincent Chinnadurai, former chairman of the state’s Minorities Commission.

The church in Tamil Nadu has lost a friend and a well-wisher, the priest said about the leader of the powerful Dravidian political movement in the state over six decades.

During his last term as chief minister from 2006-11, Karunanidhi gave special reservations for low-caste Christians in education institutions and government jobs, Father Chinnadurai said.

“He really cared for the poor and came up with various schemes for helping poor and minority groups. He was a real champion of social justice,” the prelate added.

Whilst acts of hooliganism and violence against Christians intensify in Uttar Pradesh, India’s “secular” authorities continue to show “preferences” for Hindus.

On August 8, senior police and government officials in Meerut threw rose petals from a helicopter to greet Kanwar pilgrims.

A video, shared on social media, shows Additional Director General of Police Prashant Kumar throwing rose petals during an aerial tour. He was accompanied by Meerut’s commissioner. Kanwar Yatra is the annual pilgrimage of devotees of the Lord Shiva. Pilgrims carry water from the Ganges River in pitchers, balanced between their shoulders at both ends of a stick. The pilgrims, called Kanwariyas, walk this way for hundreds of kilometres, barefoot.

Prashant Kumar replied today to charges posted on social media of “favouritism” for throwing rose petals. “No religious angle should be given to this,” he said. “Flowers are used to welcome people. The administration respects all religions and actively takes part even in Gurupurab, Eid, Bakrid or Jain festivals.” Despite denials, police “favouritism” towards Hindu pilgrims is clearly evinced by their nonchalant attitude towards pilgrims’ hooliganism.

Before, in Moti Nagar, near Delhi, a group of Kanwariyas wrecked a car with sticks and iron bars because the car had tried to cross the road, swarming with pilgrims, inadvertently brushing against one of them.