Citing a dramatic escalation of targeted attacks against Christians and other minorities of their countries, human rights advocates from South Asia called for stronger EU engagement on freedom of faith or belief at a conference in Brussels on December 4.
Representatives from India and Pakistan highlighted how religious minorities, whether Christian, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist, were increasingly under pressure from those professing the bulk religion despite constitutional protections in almost all the region’s countries. They spoke at a conference entitled, “Targeted Violence against Christians in South Asia,” hosted by Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) Matej Tonin and Bert-Jan Ruissen and arranged by legal advocacy group ADF International on the European Parliament.
In India, between January and October alone greater than 600 incidents of violence were documented – averaging greater than two attacks per day – including mob assaults, public humiliation, church disruption, and demolition of homes, said Tehmina Arora, director of Advocacy Asia for ADF International, citing India’s United Christians Forum.
“Twelve Indian states now implement anti-conversion laws, often used to intimidate and criminalize peaceful religious activity. This 12 months, 123 criminal complaints have been filed against Christians, and a number of other believers remain in prison across the country,” Arora said. “Christians in India are punished not for wrongdoing but for simply gathering, praying, or helping their neighbors.”
She presented documented testimonies from across India’s most affected regions.
“Even the Supreme Court of India recently noted how the ‘anti-conversion laws’ are misused to wrongly prosecute Christians,” she added.
The panel also warned about Pakistan’s continued abuse of a number of the world’s harshest blasphemy laws, including provisions carrying a compulsory death penalty. In 2024 alone, 344 latest blasphemy cases were registered, many triggered by false or coerced allegations on social media and disproportionately targeting Christians, said Pakistani journalist Asher John, referencing 2023 attacks within the Jaranwala area, where greater than two dozen churches and over 85 homes of Christians were burned, and the 2024 lynching of 74-year-old Christian Nazeer Masih Gill in Sargodha.
“False accusations of blasphemy proceed to spark mob violence,” John said. “There’s an urgent must introduce procedural changes within the blasphemy laws to curb false allegations which have often resulted in violent attacks on Christian settlements and individuals belonging to each the minority and majority communities.”
Moreover, an absence of effective prosecution gives perpetrators of violence a way of impunity, he said, adding that law enforcement agencies and the judiciary should be certain that any person or group involved in such incidents are delivered to justice.
Pakistani blasphemy law victim Shagufta Kausar thanked each God and the European Parliament for her release from prison after an emergency resolution in 2021. She told the seminar that she and her husband had been tortured while in custody, leaving their young children, who witnessed the beatings, traumatized.
Authorities had threatened to throw her naked into the road unless her husband confessed to sending blasphemous messages, Kausar said. They also pressured her to convert to Islam, but refused, she added.
Urging EU policymakers to stay vigilant, Kausar said, “Unless the international community acts, countless innocent people will proceed to suffer under laws which might be used to silence and destroy probably the most vulnerable.”
Ejaz Alam Augustine, a former Pakistani human rights and minorities affairs minister and current member of the Punjab Assembly, spoke on the difficulty of forced faith conversion and compelled marriages of underage Christian and Hindu girls in Pakistan.
“Despite fierce opposition by religious groups, the federal government and the provincial government of Balochistan have taken a daring initiative by raising the legal age for marriage for each genders to 18 years,” Augustine said.
Similar laws is pending approval within the Punjab Provincial Assembly since April 2024, he noted.
“I’m quite hopeful that after its passage, we may have a legal safeguard against the forced faith conversion of minor Christian girls as conversion and Islamic marriage is utilized by the perpetrators to offer cover to their sexual crimes,” Augustine said.
Beyond India and Pakistan, Arora from ADF International highlighted the shrinking space for religious freedom in other South Asian countries. In Sri Lanka, rising religious nationalism has fueled a minimum of 39 incidents of threats, intimidation or disruption of worship this 12 months, including protests led by Buddhist monks stopping Christian services, she said.
“Nepal has intensified surveillance of Christian activity, with authorities arresting and expelling foreign missionaries and ordering district administrations to observe religious gatherings,” Arora said. “Bangladesh also continues to see targeted attacks and harassment, particularly in rural areas where Christians lack protection.”
The European Union has each the mandate and the means to act, she added.
“The EU shouldn’t only proceed but intensify efforts to guard freedom of faith or belief around the globe. The reappointment of a Special Envoy for the promotion of freedom of faith or belief outside the EU is now more obligatory than ever,” Arora said.
Matej Tonin, a Slovenian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the European People’s Party (EPP), said he was astonished that widespread reports of non secular persecution across south Asia were ignored by mainstream media.
“I even have to confess that it was some type of a cultural shock after I got here to the European Parliament,” he said. “I’m a Christian, I’m practicing religion back home, and I [had] never heard reports nor seen [on] the Slovenian news that Christians are persecuted,” he said.
Tonin stressed that the EU must be the promoter of freedom of faith or belief worldwide.
“We need to indicate it through facts, not words,” he said. “The EU has the tools to stop the persecution of Christians around the globe – and this was the important thing conclusion of the event. Political pressure from the European Parliament is essential, however the EU also has powerful economic tools in its hands to pressure governments into ensuring religious freedom and stopping persecution. Christians are today probably the most persecuted religious group on the earth, and it’s important that we talk about this publicly and loudly.”
Tonin’s co-host, Bert-Jan Ruissen, MEP from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, called on the EU for freedom of faith to be an actual condition for GSP+ trade advantages.
“Too many countries still violate this right while having fun with reduced import duties. This should be put to an end,” he said.
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