“District authorities are asking church ministers and other Christian workers to appear before officials and explain their activities.” ChristianPersecution.com has documented numerous incidents in which Christians are persecuted by the very officials who should be protecting them from persecution. This takes place not only in India, but in other countries as well, including Pakistan.
For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in India, see here.
“Churches in Madhya Pradesh, India, forced to cancel Sunday services,” Barnabas Fund, December 1, 2021:
Churches in the Jhabua District of Madhya Pradesh, India, have complained of being forced to cancel services owing to a crackdown on allegedly unlawful conversion activities.
District authorities have implemented the demands made in a document circulated by the radical group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
The VHP activists called for a ban on any meetings held “for conversions and activities of this type”.
According to Jhabua sub-divisional magistrate Anil Bhana, therefore, any events held for the purpose of “mass conversion” are now barred.
Church leaders, however, have said that the order effectively prevents them from holding services at all. Any Christian meeting may be considered by extremists an attempt to unlawfully gain converts.
“For the past one month, many have cancelled Sunday prayer meetings” due to “false charges of conversion”, explained a Madhya Pradesh church minister.
A Barnabas Fund source added that the district authorities are asking church ministers and other Christian workers to appear before officials and explain their activities. He described these orders as “new pressure tactics applied through government mechanisms”….
