New Delhi: The United Christian Forum (UCF), a Delhi-based civil society organization focused on Christian issues, said in a press release that the first two and a half months of 2024, before the general elections, witnessed a “large-scale erosion of fundamental rights”. fundamental rights and protection of Indian Christians”.
“The month of January saw 70 incidents of violence against Christians, followed by 62 incidents in 29 days of February and 29 incidents in 15 days of March 2024,” UCF said. This represents a total of 161 incidents in 2.5 months.
Incidents include violence, attacks on churches or prayer meetings, harassment of those who follow their faith, ostracism and limitation of access to community resources, and false allegations, particularly those relating to to “forced conversions”.
The ostracization of Christians who follow their faith continues in Chhattisgarh, the press release said. “Christians are denied access to water from the village’s community well. In this state, unfortunately, even dead Christians are not spared, as many have been denied burial in accordance with Christian rituals. Local villagers threatened to cremate the bodies as the final act of Gharwapasi. As at Christmas 2022, Christians are once again driven from their homes. Residents physically attack them, threaten their lives and vandalize their homes,” the UCF said.
In Uttar Pradesh, which has seen the second highest number of incidents after Chhattisgarh, there is “clear evidence of state-sponsored harassment of Christians” as “police are filing false conversion allegations against pastors, even for praying at birthday parties and other social gatherings.” », Continues the press release.
“In total, there are 19 states in India where the lives of Christians are under threat if they practice their faith. In just 75 days in 2024, 122 Christians have been detained or arrested based on false conversion claims. As UCF, we ask our leaders to end this violence by taking strict action against the perpetrators of all these crimes, and we hope and pray for peaceful and fair elections,” the group said.
Thread reported how attacks against Christians have seen a sharp increase in the last 14 years, especially since 2017. “Most of the time, FIRs are filed against victims of violence, while perpetrators are left safe from all responsibility”, AC Michael, national manager. the president of UCF, declared Thread SO. “Otherwise, the police usually try to placate the victims, saying that if you press charges, they (the attackers) might become more aggressive and your life would then be more dangerous.”
