By Matters India Reporter

New Delhi, September 20, 2019: More than 200 incidents of violence against Christians reported in India, according to data compiled by advocacy group, New Delhi-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) – India.

According to ADF-India, 218 incidents in 243 days of 2019, 159 mob violence incidents and 27 incidents a month were recorded.

Since the beginning of this year, the reported incidents of violence against Christians have been reported on United Christian Forum (UCF) toll-free helpline number.

ADF-India is a non-profit providing legal assistance to victims of conflict in India.

“Modus operandi followed in all 159 cases of mob violence are the same. A mob accompanied by the police arrives at the prayer service, shouts slogans and beats up the members of the congregation including women and children. Then the pastors are arrested or detained by the police under the false allegation of conversion,” A C Michael, development director for ADF- India, said in a press statement.

According to him, in some cases, friendly media is taken along to ensure publication of their side of story. What’s more important to notice is that till today none of these false allegations have ever been sustained in a court of law. In fact, almost all of the arrested pastors have either been released on bail or acquitted as the police or the unruly crowd has failed to provide evidence of forceful conversions.

“It will not be exaggeration if it is stated that many Christians are experiencing restrictions of their freedom to practice their faith in one way or the other in a large part of India’s territory that is 23 states out of 28 states of India,” he said.

Uttar Pradesh leads the chart with 51 incidents followed by 41 in Tamil Nadu, 24 in Chhattisgarh, 17 in Jharkhand, 16 in Karnataka, 14 in Telangana, 12 in Andhra Pradesh, 9 in Maharashtra, 6 in Haryana, 5 in Bihar, 4 in Delhi, 3 in Odisha, 2 each in Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Puducherry, Rajasthan and West Bengal, 1 each in Goa, Gujarat, J&K, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Tripura.

Out of 218 incidents of violence against Christians, 159 incidents are in the form of intimidation and threats by a vigilante mob. On an average it counts for 27 incidents in a month in last 8 months, as against 20 incidents a month in 2018. There were 121 women and 181 children who were injured in these mob violence incidents.

And the trend of not filing First Information Reports (FIRs) against perpetrators of violence continues as out of these 218 incidents only 25 FIRs registered against them. This shows the tacit understanding between such perpetrators and the police, which obviously enjoys patronage of local political leaders or officials. Sometimes the non-filing of complaints or FIR is also due to fear of reprisals, said Michael, a former Catholic member of the Minorities Commission of Delhi state.

Since 2014, the attacks on Christians have increased consistently like 292 in 2018, 240 in 2017, 208 in 2016, 177 in 2015 and 147 in 2014. As a matter of fact, according to the World Watch List of 50 countries, India is the 10th most dangerous country in the world to live in for Christians as against 28th in the year 2014.

Every single month of 2019 has witnessed greater violence and hostility against Christians compared to the year 2018.

However, despite of such violence, the victims were able to report and register hardly 18 FIR last year. This year, the number of FIRs is at a paltry 25. These numbers are a testament to the dis-empowerment faced by Christian victims who often belong to the lowest strata in society. The impunity that the police and the government permit the perpetrators also contributes in eroding any confidence that the victim may have in the law enforcement agency.

Uttar Pradesh
This State witnessed the highest number of incidents last year, when there was an administration led crack down on churches across the eastern part of the State. It is routine here for police and district administration to book and detain pastors under preventive custody.

In a glaring case in Jaunpur, on April 14, 2019, prayer services led by Pastor Ram Vachan Bind was attacked by a mob of around 200 people who destroyed all the property in the church including the makeshift shed used for prayers, and physically assaulted the people gathered at the church for worship.

It is unfortunate that the mob unleashed this violence in the presence of the police who chose to remain mute spectators to the incident. The fact that Pastor Bind enjoys an order of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, directing the District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police that no interference be made by police officers or other persons in the pastor’s prayer services, have been of no avail. Under such circumstances, it takes immense effort and risk to report an act of violence where the police offer no help.

On February 7, 2019, Pastor Ranjit Kumar was beaten black and blue in Sultanpur by about 25 religious’ extremists, staining the walls of his house with blood. The Pastor and his family fled the village fearing for their life. The police refused to register a FIR, despite the pastor’s complaint against the upper caste neighbours from his village. It took a direction from the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Commission in Lucknow to compel the police to book the culprits.

Tamil Nadu
The police here accept written complaints made by victims describing cognizable offences, only to have them entered in the Community Service Register (CSR) for non-actionable complaints. They fail to initiate any action against the perpetrators by registering a FIR.

On February 17, 2019, some unknown persons attempted to burn down Grace IPA Church led by Pastor Jesudas in Trichy. In that attempt, the main door was damaged. Though the local police accepted the pastor’s complaint, no action was taken on the same.

In Udumalpet, when some Christians were distributing Bibles on June 8, 2019, some Hindutva extremists detained the Christians and beat up an individual. They threw the Holy Bibles on the street and attempted to burn them. Interestingly, the perpetrators were able to move the police to register a case against the Christians for wounding their religious feelings. A complaint filed by the Christians though, only fetched them a CSR.

Chhattisgarh
Loss of livelihood, displacement, deprivation of basic facilities is a few among the plethora of human right violations that Christians who refuse to follow the mores of a village in Chhattisgarh may face. Families which face social exclusion, experience deep trauma and often leave their home and village for good. The police often expressly refuse to act in such cases, asking the victims to ‘compromise’ with the perpetrators or let the offenders off by giving them a verbal warning, despite having committed serious offences.

Jharkhand
Police in Jharkhand are quick to employ the Jharkhand Freedom of Religion Act, 2017 (commonly known as the ‘anticonversion law’) to frequently arrest and incarcerate pastors for long duration of time. Contrary to criminal law jurisprudence, courts in the State delay or deny granting bail, for offences arising out of this law, which only carry a maximum term of imprisonment of three years.

On July 5, 2018, when a local evangelist along with a few believers was sharing the gospel in Dumka, the villagers dragged them to the local police station. Charged and arrested under Section 4 of the anti-conversion law in July 2018, the evangelists were able to come out on bail only in September 2018, almost two months later.

“Nobody should be persecuted because of their faith. It is worrying to see these horrendous acts of mobocracy still continuing even after a slew of directions to the government from the Supreme Court Bench led by the then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. Unless the political forces stop encouraging the people from taking power into their own hands, the ‘mob’ culture is likely to become a norm,” said Tehmina Arora, director of ADF India.