“One of my church members named Saggudas was denied access to the village water well,” Pastor Mohan Kumar from Yeshu Bachata Hai Church in Janakipur, Bihar told ICC in the days following the BJP’s victory. “We fetched water for Saggudas and his family from neighboring villages for 10 days. When the village leaders realized the Christians had found a way to get water, they brutally beat up Saggudas and his family, leaving them with bruises and internal injuries.”

“I have been ministering in Janakipur since 2017 and I can attest to the fact that local Christians have endured endless challenges,” Pastor Kumar explained. “However, the intensity has grown recently. I am not sure if it is directly connected to the election results, but things are getting worse.”

In another incident, three pastors in the Azamgarh Distirct of Uttar Pradesh were arrested on May 30 while leading Christian meetings where more than 2,000 Christians had gathered for prayer. Local police justified the arrests by saying that the organizers had not sought the proper permissions to hold the meeting.

Pastor Philip, an evangelist from Delhi and one of the three arrested, said that the police deliberately used vague sections of the law in order to disrupt the prayer service. “This has happened routinely and now that the BJP has come back to power, I suspect that things might get even worse,” Pastor Philip told ICC.

Attacks on Christians and their places of worship skyrocketed in the first five years of BJP rule. According to the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) the number of violent attacks on Christians more than doubled.

This fact and the series of incidents that have already been reported in the first weeks of the BJP’s second term in power has many Indian Christians concerned. Will the next five years of BJP rule be the same as the first? Will attacks on India’s Christians continue to escalate? These are the questions many Indian Christians find themselves asking in the early days of the BJP’s second term in power.

For interviews, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org

For Suneel’s family, this was only the beginning of their suffering. Since the murder of their relative, they have been harassed and bullied by individuals connected with the Services Hospital.

“I am experiencing pervasive discrimination in the process of getting justice for my son,” Saleem Masih, Suneel’s father, told ICC. “The hospital administration was not willing to issue Suneel’s death certificate with his cause of death. However, after the intervention of the Department of Motorway Police, where Suneel was an employee, it was issued mentioning the death as ‘killed.’”

“Due to threats, our children are not going to school and are not going out to play,” Masih continued.

Recently, a stranger appeared at Masih’s house acting as an investigating police officer. He filmed the family’s house and the family members. However, it was later revealed that this individual was a spy for the hospital administration. He was handed over to the local police, but the police reportedly released him without further inquiry

Over a week ago, the police asked Aneel Masih, Suneel’s brother, to help them identify the area of the hospital where the incident took place. Aneel went with the police to identify the location, but the medical superintendent of the hospital later submitted a criminal complaint against Aneel, alleging that he was intruding into the hospital and threatening the hospital staff.

“Suneel and his sister were mistreated by the medical staff,” Father Qaisar Feroz said shortly after leading Suneel’s memorial service. “We are sad and strongly condemn the discriminatory attitude, injustice, and violence that was carried out by the hospital staff on this young Christian man.”

“We have little hope that the grieved family would find justice,” Illyas Bhatti, a local community leader told ICC. “They will be engaged in lengthy procedural actions and meanwhile will be pressurized and threatened by influential persons to withdraw the case. Vulnerability increases when the victim is from a minority community.”

“Space for religious minorities is shrinking rapidly in Pakistan,” Javed David, Chairman of Hope for Light Ministries, explained to ICC. “Ironically, personnel in government departments are encouraging this trend in one or the other way. The government and law enforcement agencies must take firm steps to counter this trend, but we often find a lack of political will in this regard.”

For interviews with William Stark, Regional Manager, please contact Olivia Miller, Communications Coordinator: press@persecution.org