Even as India prepared to welcome the American President Donald J Trump, who on his two-day visit to India reportedly plans to discuss, among other things, the issue of religious freedom in India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) registered nine incidents of hate crime and violence on Indian Christians over the weekend.

From Feb 21 to 23, the RLC recorded nine incidents targeting Christians and their congregations including disruption of worship services, intimidation from police machinery and mob violence. Such incidents around weekends and especially on Sunday have become a regular phenomenon for Christians in many parts of India, Reverend Vijayesh Lal, national director of Religious Liberty Commission of EFI, said in a press note.

One incident was also reported from Chhattisgarh on Feb 20 evening taking the total number of incidents to ten in the last three days.