157 attacks on christians in 3rd quarter of 2020: Persecution Relief

Image Courtesy:acninternational.org

There are three months to go before 2020 ends, and already over 450 cases of attacks on the Chrsitian minority community have been recorded by Persecution Relief, an organisation that provides support to persecuted Christians in India and records hate crimes against the community.

From August 2020 to October 2020, Persecution Relief recorded 157 cases of such hate crimes. Its quarterly report released today lists these crimes to include 4 murders, 46 attacks, 32 crimes against women, 43 false complaints against Christians, 45 cases of ‘collusion of authority’, 22 boycotts, 20 church attacks, and 21 unjust arrests. According to Persecution Relief founder Shibu Thomas, these are just what they have records of, there may be many more cases that have gone unreported.

Uttar Pradesh is at the top of the three Indian states with most attacks on the community. In UP, stated the report, 27 allegations of anti-Christians attacks have been recorded by the organisation between July to September 2020. Chhattisgarh with 16 cases comes in second, while Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand share the third spot with 14 anti-Christians attacks. All this in the last three months!

As talks of an ‘Anti-Conversion law’ are doing the rounds, the organisation has written an Open Letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to prevent such a draconian law from being passed.

According to Thomas, Tribal and Dalit Christians are one of the most persecuted Christian groups in the country. The report details a recent case where 15 homes were destroyed and 11 Tribal Christian families were boycotted for their faith. “Although inexhaustive, as many cases of Christian persecution are not reported due to fear, these numbers conclude that two Christians are persecuted for their faith in India, everyday! This must not be taken lightly! The conspiracies against the Christian minority in India have now become innumerable and inconceivable. Be it the amendment of the Constitution, the New Education Policy, rumors of the National Anti-Conversion Law, discrimination of Dalit Christians, hate campaigns on social media, our authorities are leaving no stone unturned,” said Shibu Thomas in a statement that accompanied the report. Between January 2016 to August 2020, they recorded over 2100 cases of hate crimes against Christians in India.

The report may be read here: