Rights Group Writes to Vatican Over Rise in Violence Against Christians in India
The letter was given to Vatican foreign minister Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, who is on a week-long visit to India to meet with church officials in the country.
The letter urged the Vatican minister to bring up rising crimes against the minority community during his talks with Indian officials.
Gallagher held a meeting with Union external affairs minister S. Jaishankar last week.
The Indian minister took to social media after the meeting on Thursday and said that he was pleased to meet the archbishop, adding that they had 'good conversation about the importance of faith, and the need for dialogue and diplomacy to address conflicts'.
In January, UCF had released a report which stated that 2024 witnessed 834 hate crimes against Christians, up from 734 such incidents in 2023. In the Modi decade, such crimes had increased from 127 in 2014, the report further said.
'The alarming frequency of attacks translates to more than two Christians being targeted every day in India simply for practising their faith,' UCF had said.
In their submission to Gallagher, UCF said that the 'primary reason for these attacks has been false allegations of fraudulent conversions'.
According to the report, the highest number of incidents in 2024 were reported from Uttar Pradesh (209), followed by Chhattisgarh (165). In many of these cases, rights activists have pointed out, no First Information Report is filed – sometimes despite there being a police complaint on the matter.
In other situations, victims are afraid to approach the police because they believe that the police will try to turn the matter around, and side with the perpetrators while filing false charges against the victims.
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