UP and Tamil Nadu top attacks on Christians; 247 attacks reported up to September

In what should send alarm bells ringing, the number of attacks against Christians are on the rise in the country. This year until September, there have been 247 attacks, but only 28 FIRs were registered, according to Alliance Defending Freedom. In fact, there were 29 attacks against Christians in September alone. This is the highest in the last five years. In all of these incidents, a police report has been filed.

The highest number of attacks against Christians have been reported from Uttar Pradesh, where there have been 60 incidents until September. This is followed by Tamil Nadu, where there have been 47 attacks. These states are followed by Chhattishgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Maharashtra with 25, 21, and 18 attacked until September respectively.

A look at the statistics indicates that the attacks against Christians have almost doubled since 2014, when there were 147 attacks against people in the community. And it has worsened since then. In 2015, there were 177 attacks specifically against Christians, in 2016, 208, in 2017, 240, and in 2018, there were 292 incidents.

This month, in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri district, which is on the Nepal border, Hindutva groups barged into churches on a Sunday, disrupted prayers and dragged a pastor to the police station. One of the pastors was charged under sections 153A, 295A and 505(1) of the Indian Penal Code, while the other was asked to obtain permission for holding prayers.

Section 153 A deals with promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence and doing acts against maintenance of harmony; Section 295A deals with deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs and Section 505 (1) states that if anyone publishes a report with a intent to incite, or which is likely to incite, any class or community can be punished with incitement.

In Uttar Pradesh, the police officers too are complicit in the crime. A pastor in Lakhimpur who had called the police for protection from a mob of more than 100 Hindu fundamentalists, who had surrounded his house, was instead arrested and sent to jail under Sections 295 A and 153 A of the IPC.

“Last year, in Jaunpur district, which is close to PM Modi’s constituency Varanasi, the police arrived at 2 am in the middle of the night to a pastor’s house to arrest him. This was done on a Saturday to ensure there would not be any service on Sunday. The next day, when people were on their way to church, a mob forcefully sent them back. And this is a district where there are hardly 500 Christians,” pointed out AC Michael, the former member of the Delhi Minorities Commission. Moreover, the government should make mob lynching a non-bailable offence.

In fact, the situation in Uttar Pradesh has been particularly unnerving ever since the Ajay Bisht government came to power. In 2018, there were 108 attacks on Christians in the state. All of these incidents have been recorded on the website https://mapviolence.in/, which has been recording and tracking the attacks on Christians.

“The police have been stating that they under pressure. Instead of succumbing to mob pressure, the police should investigate and file cases against those who break the rule of law. The government is working systematically to propagate that there is a proliferation of conversions by Christians. IF that were true, why has the population of Christians remained stagnant at 2.37% the last 70 years,” questioned Michael.

“There are anti-conversion Bills in seven states in the country and till today there has not been a single conviction against a pastor for these so-called ‘conversions’. In these seven states you need the permission of the district collector to change your religion. This is against the Constitution,” pointed out Michael.