Seven Christians were jailed in a northern Indian state after Hindu vigilante groups disrupted Sunday prayer services in six places, alleging they were converting gullible people to Christianity. “This has become a pattern now to trap Christians in false conversion cases,” said Pastor Joy Mathew, who is based in Uttar Pradesh, which is India’s largest state ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The state’s police have registered more than 400 anti-conversion cases against Christians after a draconian law criminalizing conversion was enacted in 2021.
The law stipulates up to 20 years imprisonment for violators. The seven arrests were made on Aug. 24 from three places, said a Church leader who did not want to be named due to fear of retribution. He said six Sunday prayer services were disrupted on that day across four districts – Mau, Ghazipur, Jaunpur and Budaun. Among those arrested were Lalmuni Chauhan and Ashish Chauhan in Mau, two others from Jaunpur and three from Budaun, whose names were yet to be ascertained, the Church leader said. All seven, accused of organizing religious conversion activity, were produced before local courts and sent to judicial custody, he added. About 80 percent of Uttar Pradesh’s more than 200 million people are Hindus, while Christians make up less than half a percent. The state recorded 97 violent incidents against Christians until the end of July this year, and 209 incidents last year, according to the ecumenical body United Christian Forum.
