Mr. David Turner:

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to appear before the committee today. We want to bring to the committee's attention the recent report on the persecution of Christians in India. I am the director of Church in Chains. We are an independent charity that seeks to support persecuted Christians worldwide. With me today is Pastor Baiju George, an Indian Christian who has been living in Ireland since 2006, and Ms Pamela Coulter, who acts as our advocacy officer.

Our concerns about this matter can be summarised in the title of the report, which is Official India on the side of the militants – an analysis on the persecution of Christians in India with the tacit approval of police and government officials. The report covers the period from July to December 2017, and we have also produced a short summary, which has been circulated to members, but I have copies available for anyone who wants one. Our presentation is divided into three sections. I want to speak about the facts behind the report, with a few brief case histories to illustrate what is going on in India at the moment. Then Pastor George will speak about some of the reasons behind the rise in persecution, which has brought this particularly to our notice. Then Ms Coulter will speak about some recommendations and suggestions as to how this committee could act in response.

Church in Chains has appeared before this committee previously. We have been in existence for over 30 years. We began when we became aware of the plight of Christian prisoners in the Soviet Union. We try to do four main things in our work. We try to raise awareness about the fact that Christians are persecuted around the world, and we do that by publishing accurate and reliable reports. As a Christian organisation, we encourage people to pray, so we circulate a quarterly magazine and a weekly email to our supporters, and we organise various events for them. The third strand, which is the strand that has us here today, is that we advocate for justice. We seek to engage with ambassadors of governments where Christians face persecution. We seek to engage with the committee in the Oireachtas, and we have also been a member of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's NGO standing committee on human rights. The fourth strand to our work is that we seek to support victims of persecution. That can involve different things in different countries. It includes seeking to support displaced Christians in countries like Iraq, Syria and Nigeria; seeking to support pastors and churches attacked by Hindu extremists in India, which we are considering today, and those who suffer at the hands of Islamist extremists in Pakistan and Egypt, and the families of prisoners in Eritrea. We also support the provision of Bibles and Christian literature in countries where they are not freely available, countries like Iran and North Korea. While our strapline is an Irish voice for persecuted Christians, we would like to make it clear that we believe strongly in religious freedom for all people, and while our focus is predominantly on Christians, we acknowledge that other religious groups, and indeed those who profess atheism, also suffer persecution in many countries, alongside Christians. They would include groups like the Ahmadi Muslim community in Pakistan, the Baha'i community in Iran, Muslims in Burma, China and India, and the Yazidis in Iraq.

The report that we produced on the period July to December 2017 documents a representative sample of 57 serious incidents of persecution during that period. It is a gross understatement of the actual number of incidents. Since we compiled that report, we got some figures from Indian organisations. I do not want to go into too many statistics, but it is clearly seen that in 2016, Indian Christians reported 441 incidents in the country, and in 2017 that number had gone up to 736. Even in the period January to March of this year - the latest news we have is up to last Sunday, which was Palm Sunday, when an attack was recorded - there were 90 documented cases. This is not just being reported by Christian organisations. The first line of the 2017 Human Rights Watch report for India says:

Vigilante violence aimed at religious minorities, marginalised communities, and critics of the government - often carried out by groups claiming to support the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - became an increasing threat in India in 2017. The government failed to promptly or credibly investigate the attacks, while many senior BJP leaders publicly promoted Hindu supremacy and ultra-nationalism, which encouraged further violence.

So in many ways, the Human Rights Watch analysis tallies almost exactly with what we have found on what is behind persecution of Christians. Last June, Dr. Ahmad Shaheed, who is the UN rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, was in Dublin speaking at a summer school in Trinity College, and I was at that event. When he was underlining what the current challenges to freedom of religion or belief around the world are, he spoke about the persecutions of Christians in India as being one of those challenges. It is important to note where this persecution is happening in India. It is not happening, to a large part, in the cities of India, where churches are bigger and are more visible. Many of India’s Christians are able to practise their faith freely. It has been the case that Christians in India have suffered attacks over decades. I have been involved in this work for 30 years or more. During that time, there have been reports coming in, but it is very evident that there has been a huge increase in recent years. We attribute that to the fact that those who are perpetrating the attacks feel a sense of emboldenment to do that. They feel that they will not be punished for taking part in such attacks, and indeed that they may have the support of local government officials, or the police. A bizarre feature of many of the attacks, which is hard to believe, is that an attacker would attack innocent victims, often drawing blood as the committee will have seen in some of the pictures in the report, and then they drag the victims to the local police station, asking that the victims be charged with forcing conversion. As we consider that, it is also important to note that it is widespread. It is not just in one state in India. Our figures show that attacks last year were reported in 24 out of 29 states in India.

Let me summarise four cases that are shown in the report, beginning with the man whose picture is featured on the front cover of the report, Pastor Khel Prasad Kurre. He was attacked in October 2017. He was on his way home from visiting a member of his church. Four people attacked him, beat him with sticks. He was hospitalised and needed 12 stitches to his head. When he reported the incident to the police, he was informed that the attackers had been to the police station to report that he was converting people to Christianity. The police threatened him with arrest, which deterred him from lodging a complaint about the attacks.

On page six of the report, the committee can see a picture of Pastor Karthik Chandran. He was attacked by a group of 20 Hindu extremists in the southern state of Tamil Nadu in December.

His church was running a pre-Christmas charity event open to everybody. The event was intended to distribute clothing to the poor, aged and widows. The extremists came in and broke the music equipment, chairs and glass windows. The Christians submitted photos and videos of the assault to the police. In this case, the police did register a case against the assailants, but they did not arrest anybody despite the clear evidence. Again, that prompted fears of collusion between police and the attackers.

On page 7 of our submission is a picture of Pastor Harjot Singh Sethi. He is pictured with his leg in plaster. He suffered head and leg injuries in Rajasthan state in August 2017. About 50 extremists attacked a group of Christians holding a prayer meeting in one of their homes. This took place in a private home. The extremists said they would stop the attack if the Christians, and Pastor Sethi in particular, would shout "Hail, Lord Ram". It is hard to see a more clear-cut example of the motivation behind the attacks. Before receiving medical treatment, Pastor Sethi was taken to a police station. The attackers came there and abused the Christians, and accused Pastor Sethi of forceful conversion. This is a regular pattern. Pastor Baiju George will speak about why they do that. Six attackers were charged by police, but with minor offences.

The last example I want to mention on this occasion is pictured on page 6 of our submission. Pastor Muniyandi Elangoan Jebraj suffered soft-tissue brain damage after a brutal attack by five Hindu extremists in July 2017 in Tamil Nadu. This took place outside the church gate. Pastor Jebraj and his son, who is also a pastor, were battered with a knife, wooden sticks and steel rods. The attackers were identified as members of the Hindu Makkal Katchi, an extremist group. However, police denied any religious motivation in the incident despite the fact that the group the attackers belonged to had been aggressively inciting Hindus in Tamil Nadu to attack Christians.

I could provide many more examples. I mention those to highlight what it is like on the ground. At this point I would like to turn to Pastor Baiju George. He is an Indian Christian who has been living in Ireland since 2006. He will speak about how things have changed for Christians in his home country, speak about some of the people he has been in contact with and outline some of the reasons behind the rise in persecution.