The persecution of minority Christians is going unchecked in Uttar Pradesh, a northern Indian state where 17 members of the community, including pastors, have been jailed this month, Christian leaders say.
Many Christians are fearful of practicing their faith as police terrorize the community with fabricated charges of religious conversion to appease hardline Hindu groups in the state, one Christian leader said on Jan. 25.
In the latest case, police arrested two Christians including a pastor on Jan. 24 and a court remanded them to police custody on Jan.25.
“We are trying to seek their bail, but it is unlikely that they will get bail as lower courts often remand those accused in religious conversion charges into judicial custody,” the Christian leader said on condition of anonymity.
“Their only crime was conducting a routine prayer service and now they are in a police station,” he told UCA News.
Those in jail also were charged with the same offense and were unable to get bail from the lower courts, he added.
The situation is very alarming, said Father Anand Mathew, a priest of the Indian Missionary Society based in Varanasi, a city in the state that is home to hundreds of Hindu temples and shrines.
“Holding a prayer meeting has become very difficult. Many Pentecostal pastors stopped their regular prayer services after mainstream print and visual media painted such prayer gatherings as religious conversion gatherings”, Mathew told UCA News on Jan. 26.
This story was originally published in ucanews.com. Read the full story here .