70 incidents of violence against Christians in India were witnessed in January, 62 in February and 29 in the first half of March.
The United Christian Forum (UCF) based in Delhi revealed a significant number of over 150 incidents of attacks on Indian Christians in just 2.5 months since the beginning of 2024.
The human rights organization that advocates for the Chrisitians, UCF, in its press release said that there is “a large-scale erosion of basic fundamental rights and protection of Indian Christians”.
As it lists Chattisgarh to have recorded the highest number of violence, followed by Uttar Pradesh, UCF stated, “In all, there are 19 states in India wherein Christians are facing threat to their lives for practicing their faith”.
“January witnessed 70 incidents of violence against Christians followed by 62 incidents in 29 days of February and 29 incidents in 15 days of March, 2024,” it said, making up a total of 161 incidents.
A previous statistical report of 2023 by UCF had alleged that the numbers are likely to set a new record compared to those of the previous years, to stand on par with the familiar vigilante violence against the Muslim and Dalit minorities.
Most instances of violence are carried out through mob actions orchestrated by “vigilante groups” of a specific faith, purportedly receiving support from individuals in positions of power, the report had alleged. And now, the recent release also claimed that there is “clear evidence of state- sponsored harassment of Christians”.
Many reports of hundreds of churches being vandalized and deaths as a result of violence have been attributed in large part to the Manipur violence. The Archbishop of Imphal, in a letter, written in June 2023, claimed that 249 churches belonging to Meitei Christians were destroyed in just 36 hours since the eruption of violence in May, 2023. A petition filed in the Supreme Court notes the number of structures of worship destroyed as 642. However, it must be pointed out that the UCF data did not include Manipur violence incidents against Christians, in spite of the claims that ‘religious attacks have been effectively carried out in the region’.
This story was originally published in theobserverpost.com. Read the full story here.