A United Christian Forum (UCF) helpline recorded 29 violent incidents and threats towards Christians in the country, compared to 20 incidents per month last year. Hindu fundamentalists are also working towards a more coordinated effort to use building regulation laws to shut down churches, especially in remote areas. More than 100 churches were shut in 2018.
This happened after Hindu extremists raided them or filed complaints against the police, according to UCF helpline reports and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a US-based non-profit that helps Christians having their religious freedom threatened.
Some of these congregations had as many as 300 people.
Some pastors have claimed this is a conservative estimate, as there are too many churches and in remote places to keep accurate records, according to Newsweek.
Mange Singe, from Ruhalki Kishanpur near Haridwar, said police have closed seven churches permanently.
He told Newsweek: “The Hindu extremists barge into the middle of the worship services and threaten and abuse the people present.
“If this does not scare the Christians away the extremists get the police along and shut down the church and the fellowship by force and chase the worshippers away.”
He said his church, Christian Revival Church, has been attacked at least 25 times by extremists since it began in 2010.
Mr Singe claims that instead of arresting the attackers, police instead usually arrest a pastor.
He himself has been arrested 32 times since 2011 over conducting prayers or false allegations of forcibly converting someone to christianity, he claimed.
He said: “Since 2014, persecution has increased,” calling the past few years “Persecution Anytime.”
Rajesh Kumar, a pastor from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh, had his 300-strong congregation disrupted by a Hindu extremist group called the Bajrang Dal.
An elder at the church, Bhawar Pal Singh said: “They took us to the police station and a First Information Report was lodged against us for ‘disrupting peace’.”
The church has been shut ever since.