Source: www. barnabasfund.org
Date: August 4, 2020
Four Hindu extremists were arrested in India on 19 July following the murder of Christian Suman Munda, killed as she attempted to protect her daughter from sexual assault.
The attack on the 25-year-old mother and her daughter followed the rape of four Christian girls in the district of Khunti, in Jharkhand State, where Suman lived. Her body was discovered by relatives at an isolated location near her home in the village of Redhadi.
Suman was harrassed by Hindu radicals from the moment they learned about her conversion to Christianity six years ago. A Barnabas contact said Christians are helping Suman’s family.
A second Christian was murdered in the same district in June. Ramji Munda, 27, was killed by suspected tribal activists on 24 June on the outskirts of his village in Khunti.
In other murderous attacks targeting Christians this year in India, Christian missionary, Munshi Dev Tado, was shot dead by suspected Maoist Naxalites in Maharashtra State on 10 July. In June, Christian P Jeyaraj, 59, and his son Emmanuel Benicks, 31, died after being tortured to death in police custody in Tamil Nadu State. Also in June, 14-year-old Christian boy, Samaru Madkami, was tortured and killed in Odisha State.
Violence and hate crimes against Christians rose in India in 2019. The Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) recorded 366 incidents last year, compared to 325 incidents in 2018