RLPB 692. Bangladesh, Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT): the Christian Struggle to Survive

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 692 | Wed 03 May 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Sign up for and support the RLPB at www.ElizabethKendal.com  
View RLPB archives at Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog.
For bite-size: follow religiouslibertyprayer on Instagram.

BANGLADESH: CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS (CHT)
by Elizabeth Kendal

Bangladesh, showing location of
Chittagong Hill Tracts.
(click on map to enlarge)

BACKGROUND: In 1947 British India was partitioned to become Muslim-majority Pakistan and Hindu-majority India. Despite being only three to five percent Muslim, and despite the Buddhist and Christian paharis (hill tribes) having more in common with their ethnic kin in northeast India than with the ethnic Bengali Muslims of the lowlands, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) was ‘awarded’ to Pakistan. Since then, ‘all the indigenous tribes began to face discrimination in all aspects of life’. In 1971, East Pakistan declared independence as Bangladesh. Today, after decades of state-sanctioned predatory migration (colonisation) – driven from increasingly Islamist mosques and facilitated by the overwhelmingly Bengali Muslim Bangladesh Armed Forces (BAF) – the CHT is majority Bengali Muslim and Bangladesh’s most militarised region. [See also RLPB 393, ‘Bangladesh: Hidden Genocide in Chittagong Hill Tracts,’ 8 Feb 2017.]

CHT: THE CHRISTIAN STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE

In April, hundreds of the Chittagong Hill Tracts’ (CHT’s) ethnic Kuki-Chin [also known as Bawm / Bom] Christians spent Easter displaced and grieving [RLPB 691 (26 April)]. Early reports indicated ‘a clash’ had occurred ‘between’ forces of the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF) and the more dominant ethnic Chakma and Buddhist United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF). However, testimony indicates it was a totally one-sided, targeted massacre. The brother of one of the deceased told BBC Bangla that on 6 April, between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m., ‘a group of 20-25 members of the UPDF’ attacked Khamtangpara village in Bandarban District. ‘They threw grenades into the village’ and captured ‘as many men as they could find’. The clerk of Lalthazar Bom Primary School was killed in the attack and ‘scores were injured’. The captured Kuki-Chin men were taken away and ‘laid in the field’. Men aged over 50 were released, but the remaining 22 men ‘were tied with ropes and detained in a [nearby] school … While 15 were released in the afternoon, the remaining seven detainees were shot dead the next day.’ This testimony has been confirmed by several civil society and human rights groups in Dhaka, some of which described the UPDF members as ‘state-sponsored vigilantes’. Police recovered eight bodies.

On 8 April the families were invited to collect the bodies from Bandarban Sadar Hospital mortuary. To their horror, not only were their loved ones dressed in military fatigues, but ‘No one had the back of their head, almost all had their arms and legs broken.’ A spokesperson from the Bangladesh Armed Forces’ (BAF) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) told BBC Bangla that the victims were ‘identified as members of the armed terrorist group of KNA by their clothing’. The Bangladesh government and military have labelled the KNA as ‘terrorists’, accusing it of training Jama’atul Ansar Fil Hindal Sharqiya (JAFHS) Islamic jihadists/terrorists in exchange for money. The KNF/A denies it has any links with Islamic terrorists and has urged Bangladeshi media to resist publishing the military’s ‘fake news’. Believed to be linked to al-Qaeda, JAFHS emerged in 2019 as the product of a merger of several banned pro-Caliphate militant Islamic jihadist groups.

Kuki-Chin Christians fleeing
military violence in CHT arrive in Mizoram,
northeast India, November 2022.

In October 2022, the BAF launched a fresh military offensive in the CHT with the aim of preventing the remote, sparsely populated, mountainous far east from becoming a base for Islamic militants, in particular JAFHS. Because the BAF have linked the KNA to the JAFHS, the Christian Kuki-Chin are also under attack. Locals have told BBC Bangla that, not only does the BAF’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) enjoy good relations with the UPDF, it routinely operates in collusion with the Arakan Army (comprised of Rohingya Muslims). Since October, hundreds of Christian Kuki-Chin have been displaced by military violence. Hundreds have crossed into Mizoram, in northeast India; meaning Mizoram – which is around 87 percent Christian – is now receiving refugees from east and west (Burma and Bangladesh). In Nov-Dec 2022, some 500 Kuki-Chin Christians fled Cheikhiang village ahead of an assault by joint forces of the RAB and Arakan Army. Unfortunately, Pastor Sawmkhup (70) of the Bangladesh Bawm Tribal Baptist Church did not make it, but died of starvation and dehydration in the jungle en route to Mizoram. While the ethnic Mizo Christians of Mizoram are eager to embrace and assist their kin, New Delhi (India’s political capital) is less so and has ordered its Border Guard Forces to push the refugees back.

KNA worship with singing,
Bible teaching and prayer.
[screenshot from full story of KNF/A,
Zalengam media, 20 April 2022]

The Kuki-Mizo-Chin people are one ethnic group, called by different names depending on whether they are in Bangladesh, India, or Burma/Myanmar. They are a Christian people. To protect Kuki-Chin people, culture and lands, the KNF demands an autonomous state be formed comprised of several sub-districts across the CHT’s two easternmost districts of Rangamati and Bandarban (which border India’s Mizoram and Burma’s Chin states). Dominated by ethnic Chakmas (the largest ethnic minority group in the CHT) the predominantly Buddhist UPDF seeks an autonomous state comprising the whole of CHT – one in which the Christian Kuki-Chin would remain a marginalised and imperilled ethnic-religious minority (as are the Chin in neighbouring Buddhist Burma). Initially a development organisation, the KNF broke away from the UPDF to fight for Kuki-Chin autonomy in 2017. Today, while the UPDF is pursuing a peace deal with the government, the KNF continues to stand in the way of the government’s total exploitation of the Chittagong Hills. Lord have mercy!


PLEASE PRAY THAT OUR SOVEREIGN GOD WILL:

* intervene in Bangladesh to fight for and deliver his imperilled children – the Kuki-Chin Christians of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. ‘The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him’ (from Isaiah 59:14-19 NIV).

* intervene to sustain all Kuki-Chin Christians who are impoverished, cut off from aid, displaced and imperilled on account of ethnic-religious discrimination, persecution and military violence. May our Almighty and merciful Lord provide all their needs – physical (e.g. refuge and aid), emotional (e.g. comfort and counselling) and spiritual (e.g. assurance of God’s love and presence).

* intervene in New Dehli (India’s political capital), to redirect the thinking of the Indian government. Instead of maintaining neutrality/silence and pushing back against Christian Kuki-Chin refugees, may the Indian government address root causes and advocate for peace in Bangladesh' Chittogang Hill Tracts and Burma/Myanmar. ‘The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will’ (Proverbs 21:1 ESV).


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
------------------------------------------
THE CHRISTIAN STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE IN THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS, BANGLADESH

The Kuki-Mizo-Chin people are one ethnic group, called by different names depending on whether they are in Bangladesh, India, or Burma/Myanmar. They are a Christian people. In Bangladesh’s eastern Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) the Kuki-Chin demand an autonomous state where their people, lands and culture can be protected from colonisation by Bengali Muslims, and from domination by the mostly Buddhist ethnic Chakmas (the largest ethnic minority group in the CHT). For this they suffer persecution and military violence. In October 2022, the Bangladeshi government launched a military operation against ‘separatists and terrorists’ in the CHT. In April, hundreds of Kuki-Chin Christians spent Easter displaced and grieving after ‘state sponsored’ militants attacked Khamtangpara village, Bandarban District, killing one man and capturing dozens, seven of whom they later tortured and executed. Please pray.

------------------------------------------

NOTE: Scroll.in reports (24 Dec 2022) that in October 2022, the BAF’s RAB arrested 10 militants in CHT: seven JAFHS and three KNA. During interrogations they ‘confessed’ that the JAFHS had struck a deal with the KNF ‘to provide them with funds in exchange for shelter and training’. Whether or not the KNA has sought to alleviate its poverty by training Islamic militants for pay cannot be known. While it seems unlikely, it could be the case that, if true, the KNA weren’t given much choice. Or maybe it is all just ‘fake news’ from a government and military eager to eliminate inconvenient tribal infidels standing in the way of land seizures and tourist developments. We cannot know because, like Indonesia’s Papuan Provinces, Bangladesh’s CHTs are closed to reporters and observers. In August 2002, when UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, visited Bangladesh she was denied access to the CHT [RLPB 660 (31 Aug 2022)]. Generally, news from the CHT comes in the form of BAF press statements. Whatever the truth of the matter, the fact remains, the Christian Kuki-Chin of the CHT are staring down the barrel of genocide.

------------------------------------------

Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church.

The Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) is a donor funded ministry. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com

Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

For more information see www.ElizabethKendal.com

RLPB 691. April Update, incl. Bangladesh, China, DRCongo, Eritrea, India, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 691 | Wed 26 April 2023
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

Sign up for the RLPB at www.ElizabethKendal.com
View RLPB archives at Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog.
For bite-size: follow religiouslibertyprayer on Instagram.

APRIL 2023 UPDATE & ROUNDUP
By Elizabeth Kendal

UPDATE: DURING APRIL WE PRAYED CONCERNING

BURMA (Myanmar) [RLPB 689 (12 April)], after junta chief General Min Aung Hlaing labelled the resistance ‘terrorists’ with whom the junta would not negotiate, vowing instead to ‘annihilate them to an end’. Within days of his speech, the Christian-led Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) had scored some significant victories, thereby triggering a massive military retaliation. By Easter Sunday 9 April some 10,000 civilians had fled Karen lands across the border into Thailand. Please pray for peace, and for the Church in Burma/Myanmar.

UZBEKISTAN [RLPB 690 (19 April)], after police raided the 9 April Easter Sunday worship service at the Baptist church in Qarshi, using batons and electric shock prods to incapacitate believers. Despite advancing transformative reforms, President Mirziyoyev – cognizant of the threat of Islamic terrorism and unrest – is reluctant to embrace religious freedom. Consequently, the new religion law, passed in July 2021, retains many of the repressive elements of the Soviet era law, including mandatory registration, censorship of religious materials, restrictions on religious education, and a ban on ‘missionary activity and proselytism’ and ‘activities which offend the religious feelings of believers’. Please continue to pray for the Church in Uzbekistan.  

APRIL 2023 ROUND-UP – ALSO THIS MONTH

BANGLADESH: EASTER GRIEVING IN BANDARBAN

Kuki-Chin Christians flee their homes
in Bandarban District, CHT.
(bdnews24.com 8 April 2023)

On Maundy Thursday, 6 April, eight Christians – four Baptists and four Presbyterians – were killed when fighters from the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF, dominated by Buddhist hill tribes) attacked Khamtangpara village, in Chittagong Hill Tract’s (CHT) southernmost Bandarban District. The ensuing gunfight between fighters from the UPDF and the Kuki-Chin National Front (KNF, representing the CHT’s minority Christian Kuki-Chin tribes) led more than 250 people from 80 Kuki-Chin (Bawm) Christian families to flee their homes. After sheltering overnight in local schools and churches, they headed into town where they are receiving aid and shelter. To protect Kuki-Chin people, lands and culture from Bengali Muslim colonisation, exploitation, and violence, the KNF seeks an autonomous state within Bangladesh. The UPDF, on the other hand, seeks an autonomous state comprising the whole of CHT (one in which the Christian Kuki-Chin would still be a persecuted ethnic-religious minority [as the Chin are in neighbouring Buddhist Burma]). Pastor Georgy Loncheu, of the local Presbyterian Church, told Catholic media, ‘Our Good Friday and Easter were very painful. We Bawm people are worried…’ On Tuesday morning, 25 April, gunfights erupted between the UPDF and KNF in the hills of nearby Mualpipara neighbourhood. Please pray.  [More on the Christian crisis in the CHT next month.]

CHINA: HIGH COST OF FAITHFULNESS

The trial in Hohhot – the capital of China’s Inner Mongolia – of (Mrs) Wang Honglan and 11 other believers, will commence in late April. Wang (66), her husband (73), several family members and other believers were arrested in April 2021 and charged with ‘illegal business operations’. The authorities accuse them of selling Bibles and makings millions of dollars in profit in the process. However, the Bibles – which were printed legally in China, and purchased legally from a government-sanctioned (i.e. legal) Three-Self church in Nanjing – were not being sold. The legal Bibles had been legally purchased with money donated by parishioners and were being given away to people unable to afford them. It seems that, because Wang’s group belong to an unregistered (i.e. illegal) house church, their religious activity is automatically illegal. Initially set for January 2022, the trial was postponed to give lawyers more time to examine the case. While three members of the group were bailed, the other nine have spent the past two years in prison. The prosecution is seeking a 15-year jail term for Wang and lesser sentences for the other defendants. China Aid reports: ‘Wang Honglan became a Christian when she was 24 years old. She has been serving her church since then… In the past 30 years, they held a morning prayer meeting every day at 6 AM. The morning prayer meeting never stopped for a single day, regardless of any weather conditions.’ Lord have mercy. Please pray.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC): ENDLESS TERROR

On Wednesday, 19 April, Islamic State Democratic Republic of Congo (ISDRC: the DRC chapter of Islamic State Central Africa Province) attacked civilians in Samboko village in Beni territory, in north-east DRC’s war-ravaged North Kivu region. The terrorists killed at least 20 civilians and abducted others. Congo’s army engaged the terrorists, but only managed to free two of the hostages. ISDRC is one for more than 120 armed groups fighting in DRC’s north-east provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, both of which border Uganda. While most militias are fighting for land or to control of mines, others are just trying to protect their communities. ISDRC is exploiting the chaos to consolidate and expand in the heart of central Africa, doubtless hoping to establish a base at the junction of four predominantly Christian, resource-rich yet under-developed states: Uganda, South Sudan, Central Africa Republic and DRC. Please pray.

Background: D.R. Congo (DRC): Islamic State Consolidates and Expands in Central Africa (Religious Liberty Monitoring, 21 Sept 2021.

ERITREA: HIGH COST OF FAITH

Pastor Tesfay Seyoum before his arrest.
Died 9 April 2023,
after ten years in prison for his faith.

On Resurrection Sunday, 9 April, Pastor Tesfay Seyoum, the founder and leader of Meserete Kristos Church, died in hospital as the result of a brain haemorrhage, leaving behind his wife and daughter. The fact that Pastor Seyoum had spent the last ten years incarcerated in the infamous Mai Serwa Maximum Security Prison near the capital, Asmara, reminds us of the high cost of faithfulness in Eritrea. Since May 2002 (when the persecution began) thousands of faithful Christians have been arrested, tortured and detained – in shipping containers in military camps, in unsanitary over-crowded prisons, and even in underground cells in the desert. Seven Evangelical church leaders currently in detention have been incarcerated for at least 18 years. On 19 April, officials arrested 103 Christian youths who had been attempting to record Christian music on YouTube. According to Release International the group were taken to Mai Serwa Maximum Security Prison. Lord have mercy. Please pray for the Church in Eritrea. 

(above): screenshot from an official 2022 music video of The Mahalians -- the Christian youth choir whose members and technicians are now languishing in an Eritrean prison.

INDIA: COSTLY FAITH IN CHHATTISGARH’S BASTAR DIVISION

(1) FALSELY ACCUSED: PROTESTANTS TO FACE COURT
 
On 19 April, in the northern tribal-belt state of Chhattisgarh, the Bilaspur High Court granted bail to 10 Protestant Church leaders. The pastors and evangelists were arrested in January in relation to the anti-Christian pogroms that struck 18 villages in Narayanpur district, in Chhattisgarh’s southern Bastar Division in December 2022 – pogroms that left more than 1000 Christians displaced [see RLPB 677, ‘Bastar Burns…’ 25 Jan 2023]. Catholic media reports (UCA, 20 April): ‘the Christian leaders were charged with rioting, being armed with deadly weapons, voluntarily causing hurt to public servants on duty, and criminal intimidation and assault. If convicted of all the charges, each of them faces punishments of up to 10 years in jail and fines.’ Local Church leaders believe, ‘the Protestant Church leaders were arrested and remanded to appease the majority traditional animist religion followers… [They] had no role in the violence but they were implicated in the case as they visited the victims.’ Relived they have finally been released on bail, their lawyer is confident their innocence will be proved in proved in court. Please pray.

(2) HINDU NATIONALISTS CALL FOR BOYCOTT

[NDTV news video]

Jagdalpur city in Bastar district, is the administrative capital of Chhattisgarh’s southern Bastar Division. On 10 April, Hindu nationalist leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP: World Hindu Council) and the Bajrang Dal (a Hindutva youth militia) openly took a public pledge and called for an ‘economic boycott’ of Christian and Muslim shops and businesses. The boycott follows a communal incident that occurred on 8 April in Bemetara district, 360km to the north in Durg Division. Hindus in Bemetara rioted after a 22-year old Hindu boy was killed in communal violence triggered by a clash between Hindu and Muslim schoolboys. A Muslim father and son were found murdered the next day. At least 11 Hindus were subsequently arrested for rioting, arson and murder. For this, Hindu nationalists in Bastar Division want to inflict a devastating boycott on all Muslim and Christian businesses. Social and economic boycotts have become a common form of persecution in India’s tribal belt. They might be bloodless, but they are crippling and have the effect of driving minorities out of the area.

Jitendra Faular Singh, secretary of the Inter-Denominational Church Fellowship, which represents 18 Christian groups in the tribal-dominated Bastar Division told Catholic media: ‘We have submitted petitions to the commissioner and the inspector general of the Bastar division… We want exemplary action taken against all those who have called for a boycott of Christian and Muslim business establishments.’ Please pray.

IRAQ: ‘BLASPHEMY’ IN SUPPOSEDLY SECULAR IRAQI KURDISTAN

On 16 April, the appeal court in Duhok, in Iraq’s far north, confirmed the sentence of Jagarkhuin Abdulrahman Ismael issued by the lower court on 29 March. ‘Jagar’ (38, married) – who became a follower of Christ in 2018 and attends the Anabaptist church in Duhok – will spend six months in jail on charges of misusing a telecommunication device in a way that is threatening, defamatory or insulting of others. In other words, he said something on a device that ‘offended’ a Muslim. Middle East Concern (MEC) reports: ‘His church had difficulty finding him a lawyer due to rising Islamic sentiment in the KRI [Kurdistan Region of Iraq].’ Jagar’s lawyer has filed an appeal. MEC notes that Jagar’s case ‘coincides with – and is related to – the case of Bishop Bahzad Mziri, the regional leader of the Anabaptist church, who was also charged with blasphemy in the same period.’ In response to a Muslim who had made offensive statements on social media against Jesus and the Bible, Bishop Mziri – also a convert from Islam – presented a comparison between the life of Jesus and the life of Muhammad. Fundamentalist Muslims were offended – if not by the bishop’s words (which were doubtless true), then by the fact he, an apostate, dared to utter them. Islamists then republished the comments and incited anger against the bishop and the Church. Calls for the bishop to be killed forced the family to flee the country. Both cases have been widely publicised online, inflaming Islamic indignation. Please pray.

NIGERIA: ENDLESS TERROR
-- a Christian crisis of monumental proportions.

(1) BENUE: 134 SLAUGHTERED IN FIVE DAYS

Located on the south-eastern edge of Nigeria’s volatile Middle Belt, Benue State is predominantly Christian (95 percent). On Saturday 1 April, a large contingent Fulani Muslim militants and herdsmen raided villages in Apa Local Government Area (LGA) killing six Christians. Later that day, Fulani militants attacked an evening worship service in Logo LGA, killing one worshipper and leaving five seriously wounded. These killings were but the start of a five-day wave of terror ahead of Easter that left 134 Christians dead and more than 40 hospitalised. An editorial in Nigeria’s Premium Times (24 April) questions how a five-day killing rampage could take place ‘without the police and other security agencies having a whiff of intelligence that would have helped to nip [it] in the bud, or reduce the carnage’. On the weekend of 22-23 April, Fulani militants attacked a funeral in Apa LGA where they ambushed Nathaniel Ochoche, the chairman of the Benue chapter of the Labour Party (the party headed by rising star Peter Obi, an Igbo Christian). Ochoche and three others were killed, many more were wounded, and some remain missing. Please pray.

(2) KADUNA: 33 CHRISTIANS SLAUGHTERED IN THEIR BEDS

At 10pm on Saturday 15 April, Fulani Muslim militants invaded Runji village, in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area (LGA) of predominantly Christian southern Kaduna. The terror – which continued into Sunday morning – left 33 Christians dead and many wounded. Around 40 homes (comprising half the village) were torched. It was the third attack on area Christian in the space of one week. Four days earlier, two Christians had been killed in Runji village and 17 in nearby Atak Njei village. Francis Sani, a council official of Zangon Kataf LGA, confirmed the killings, telling the media: ‘The attackers in their numbers maimed and burned mostly women and children, set houses ablaze, and raided several houses within the community, leaving an aftermath of gruesome murder of 33 people, with four sustaining various degrees of injuries and some in critical condition that have been referred to Specialist Hospital, and properties worth millions [of Nigerian Naira] destroyed. We are devastated and shocked by the level of carnage and mindless bloodletting.’ Writing for Nigeria’s This Day, journalist Yemi Adebowale askes, ‘what kind of explanation will our security agencies put up in defence of their failings?’. He notes that despite Kaduna being ‘a garrison state, with a huge number of military formations’… ‘terrorists roam unimpeded’. Lord have mercy. Please pray.

PAKISTAN: THREE ACCUSED OF BLASPHEMY
-- a Christian cleaner, a Muslim gardener, and a Chinese engineer.

On 15 April, Christian widow Musarat Bibi, and Muslim gardener Muhammad Sarmad, cleaned out a storeroom in a government girls’ school in Arif Wala, Pakpattan District, Punjab Province. The gathered up wastepaper was subsequently burned. Unfortunately, some of the paper scraps had Quranic texts on them; not that Bibi or Sarmad would have known, as both are illiterate. All who know them understand that the pair did not intend to offend anyone. However, fundamentalist Muslims accused them of blasphemy, forcing the police to arrest and charge them. Days earlier, a Chinese engineer complained to workers at the Dasu hydropower project in the country’s far north-west that ‘precious time’ was being lost due to prayer breaks. Furious Muslims whipped up a storm, accusing the Chinese national – known only as Tian – of blasphemy. On 17 April, an anti-terrorism court in Abbottabad ordered Tian be jailed for 14-days. As for Mussarat Bibi, her lawyer is hopeful the court will grant her bail and drop the charges. That said, anyone accused of blasphemy in Pakistan will know their life is gravely imperilled. Luka Masih, a local pastor who leads the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Arifwala City, told British Asian Christian Association that only a few Christians live in Bibi’s village; and fearing retribution they have all fled their homes. Please pray.

UGANDA: TERROR STRIKES GOOD FRIDAY PRAYER SERVICE

On Good Friday evening, 7 April, believers gathered in the NABI Pentecostal church in Biguli, Kamwenge District. Their prayers were interrupted when a petrol bomb exploded outside, damaging the front of the building and several parked vehicles. Church security pursued and apprehended one of six suspects, who they handed over to police. The assailant, Bwambale Sadadi (28) told police that he had engaged in jihad (Islamic holy war) during Ramadan as a way of serving Allah who would reward him in paradise. Local Christians were shocked (although doubtless relieved this bomber was an amateur). Kamwenge District is in western Uganda, close to the border with Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu region. Security officials subsequently announced they had arrested three suspected members of Islamic State Democratic Republic of Congo (ISDRC: formerly known as the Allied Democratic Forces). One was the suspect in the Good Friday church bombing. A Counter Terror Task Team arrested the other two as they attempted to cross into DRC carrying explosive devices. ISDRC is recruiting in Uganda, including in the capital, Kampala. Lord have mercy.  Meanwhile, on the evening of 8 April, Muslim fundamentalists in Namakwekwe area of Mbale town, in Uganda’s Eastern Region, stabbed to death Engineer Herbert of Sironko District. Local Christians told Morning Star News (21 April) that Herbert (42) had been ‘very effective in evangelistic activities’ that led many Muslims turn to Christ. Please pray.  
 -------------------------------------------------------

Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church. The Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) is a donor funded ministry. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com

Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

For more information see www.ElizabethKendal.com

RLPB 660. August Update incl. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Nicaragua, Pakistan

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 660 | Wed 31 Aug 2022
RLPB is published weekly to facilitate strategic intercessory prayer.

To support or sign up to the RLPB visit www.ElizabethKendal.com
View RLPB archives at Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog.
For bite-size: follow religiouslibertyprayer on Instagram.

AUGUST 2022 UPDATE
By Elizabeth Kendal

DURING THIS PERIOD, WE PRAYED CONCERNING:

* BURKINA FASO [RLPB 656 (3 Aug)], where terrorism continues to escalate, particularly in the north and east, where Islamic terrorists have infested vast regions. They destroy telecommunications, control the roads, enforce Sharia (Islamic law) and terrorise populations. Many thousands are displaced and many Christian ministries — schools, health clinics, churches — have been forced either to close or restrict their services to major cities. Around 95 percent of parishes in the terrorist-infested regions live amidst terror and without pastoral support. It is a full-blown Christian crisis. Please pray.

Hausa language map
(click on map to enlarge)

* ISLAMIC STATE [RLPB 657 (10 Aug)], after the resurgent terror group released three propaganda videos in languages other than Arabic: one in Hausa (a language either spoken or known by most Muslims across Northern Nigeria, Southern Niger and the Gulf of Guinea littoral states); one in Kurdish (spoken by Kurds in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey); and one in Amharic (the official language of Ethiopia). Furthermore, on 3 August, Islamic State Khorasan Province (greater Afghanistan) released an 18-page Pashtu-language fatwa (legal order) calling for attacks on Christian, Hindu, and Shi’ite places of worship. Wherever IS operatives or sympathisers lurk, the church now faces an increased risk of terrorism. Please pray.

* AFGHANISTAN [RLPB 658 (17 Aug)], 12 months after the Taliban takeover.

UPDATE: Heart4Iran’s new initiative — Heart4Afghanistan — has reportedly delivered 923 Dari (Afghan Persian) language Bibles in one month. It has also launched a Dari Virtual Church and streams weekly online services. Further to this, it has established a Dari-language call centre through which it provides prayer and trauma counselling 24 hours a day, seven days per week. Please pray.

* BURMA (MYANMAR) [RLPB 659 (24 Aug)], where the junta’s military operation against the predominantly Christian ethnic Chin of Burma’s western Chin State has reached genocidal proportions. It is a full-blown Christian crisis. Please pray.

AUGUST 2022 ROUND-UP - also this month:

* BANGLADESH: UN DENIED ACCESS TO CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS
Background: RLPB 393, ‘Hidden Genocide in Chittagong Hill Tracts,’ 8 Feb 2017.

Languages of Bangladesh
CHT = eastern green region;
includes Mizo and Chin tribes.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, visited Bangladesh from 14-17 August. The government, however, did not allow Bachelet access to the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) – the mountainous forested region which borders, and has more in common with, India’s Mizoram State and Burma’s Chin State. The indigenous peoples of the CHT — the Paharis (hills tribes) — comprise a mere one to two percent of the population of Bangladesh. As in India’s Mizoram and Burma’s Chin, the indigenous Paharis of the CHT are Tibeto-Burman; although, while most Mizo-Chin are Christian, most CHT Paharis are Buddhist, while three percent are Christian.

The CHT is the most militarised region of Bangladesh. The Paharis suffer appalling human rights abuses at the hands of Bengali Muslim settlers and their protectors in the military. According to indigenous leaders, violations include extrajudicial killings, disappearances, abductions (including child trafficking), land dispossession, and the rape and torture of women. The mass transmigration of Bengali Muslims into the CHT is a government-sponsored, military-enabled, mosque-driven Bengali-Muslim colonisation and land-grab, through which the Paharis are being driven from their lands. ‘The government does not want peace in the Hill Tracts and hence has prevented the UN top official from coming here,’ said Raphael Tripura, a development worker from Shanti Raj Church of Bandarban district. ‘I strongly condemn it.’

Apart from acknowledging ‘the continued allegations of human rights violations [in CHT], linked with land disputes and the need for demilitarisation’, Bachelet’s report (dated 17 Aug) essentially ignored the plight of Bangladesh’s critically imperilled Paharis, around three percent of whom are Christians. Please pray.

* EGYPT: SIX CHURCH FIRES IN EIGHT DAYS

On Sunday 14 August fire erupted in Abu Sefein Coptic Orthodox Church in Imbaba village, Giza Province, during a worship service. Forty-one Coptic Christians — including the priest and 18 children — died in the smoke and stampede. The fire was caused by an electrical fault in an externally fitted second floor air-conditioning unit. It is the most deadly church fire in recent memory. Calls rang out for changes to Egypt’s discriminatory laws which make renovating churches extremely difficult.

According to The New Arab (22 Aug), that fact that Egypt has seen six church fires in the space of eight days — in Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria — led Egyptian security to suspect ‘foul play’. A high-level source told The New Arab, ‘After inspecting and analysing the crime scenes of the burned down churches, and the operations carried out against Christians in Egypt, it turned out that the perpetrators were the same in each one, carrying out similar steps each time.’ Consequently, the ‘state security agency has launched “a state of high alert” in search of “a terrorist group allegedly responsible for the recent systematic attacks against Coptic Orthodox churches across Egypt”.’

As explained in RLPB 557, ‘Islamic State Calls for Attacks on Churches,’ 10 Aug 2022, the IS fatwa (legal edict) of 3 August, ordered that Christian, Hindu and Shi’ite places of worship be destroyed. Furthermore, the IS fatwa referred directly to an incident in the life of Muhammad when he ordered the ‘Masjid-e-Zarar’ – or ‘mosque of dissent’, a Christian place of worship — be burned. Which begs the question: are Islamic State operatives or sympathisers burning churches in Egypt? Please pray for the Church in Egypt.

* INDIA: THE BATTLE FOR HIMACHAL PRADESH

In August 2019 the Himalayan north Indian State — famous for its capital, Shimla (the summer capital of British India) — passed the HP Freedom of Religion Bill, 2019, which replaced the 2006 Bill while broadening its scope and increasing its penalties [see RLPB 522 (2 Oct 2019)]. On 13 August 2022 the state’s ruling Hindu nationalist Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) passed the HP Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill, 2022, which bans ‘mass conversions’ and further increases penalties. As is increasingly the case across India, ‘mass conversion’ is defined as ‘two or more people converting at the same time’. Any person found to have contravened the law ‘in respect of mass conversion’ may be liable for a fine and sentence of up to 10 years in prison. The United Christian Forum (UCF), a Delhi-based umbrella body of various Christian organisations, told Times of India (29 Aug) that UCF lawyers were preparing to challenge the new law in the courts, on the grounds that it is ‘an attack on religious freedom and could become a tool to create fear among minorities.’ Please pray.

* IRAN: CHRISTIANS FINED, IMPRISONED AND PUNISHED

Sara and Homayoun

(1) HOMAYOUN AND SARA. Homayoun Zhaveh and his wife, Sara Ahmadi, were first arrested in June 2019. Whilst Homayoun was subsequently released on bail, Sara was held and mistreated for a total of 67 days, including 33 days in solitary confinement. In November 2020 Judge Iman Afshari sentenced Sara to 11 years in prison for her leadership of a house-church, and Homayoun to two years for membership of the group. The couple appealed and, in December 2020, Sara’s sentence was reduced to eight years in prison, along with other deprivations. In April 2021 their lawyer applied for a retrial with Iran’s Supreme Court [RLPB 595 (28 April 2021)]. On 9 June 2021 the couple were notified that the Supreme Court had rejected their appeal for a retrial. However, the couple was never taken into custody, presumably due to Iran’s COVID crisis. On 13 August 2022 Homayoun (64) and Sara (44) answered a summons to an administrative office of Evin Prison. They were hoping their confiscated property would be returned; instead, they were both detained. Iranian Christians and advocacy groups are extremely concerned about the couple’s well-being, especially as Homayoun suffers from advanced Parkinson’s disease. Lord have mercy!

(2) FIVE PLUS ONE MORE. Article 18 reports (17 Aug) that an Iranian court of appeal has upheld the fines and prison sentences awarded to five Iranian believers from Tehran. As an Iranian-Armenian pastor who witnesses to Persians, Joseph Shahbazian (58) [see RLPB 564 (26 Aug 2020)] was sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by two years internal exile and work restrictions. Persian converts Mina Khajavi (59) and Malihe Nazari (48) were both sentenced to six years in prison. Somayeh (Sonya) Sadegh and her mother, Masoumeh Ghasemi, were both permitted to pay fines instead of serving custodial sentences. Two other converts, Farhad and Salar, who had been sentenced to one and four years in prison respectively, were not part of the appeal. On 29 August Pastor Joseph was given 24 hours to hand himself in to the authorities at Tehran’s Evin Prison. He commenced his sentence on 30 August. Mina has been granted a six-week stay to recover from a badly broken leg. Article 18 could not confirm if Malihe had been summoned to commence her sentence. Please pray.

Meanwhile, on 30 July, Christian convert Mohammad Golbaz (34) was arrested by plainclothes intelligence agents while working in his motorcycle repair shop in Karaj. He has not been charged with any crime. When loved ones inquired as to his whereabouts, they were told that Mohammad was an ‘apostate’ and would held ‘for a while’. It seems Mohammad is being punished (mistreated, possibly tortured) for daring to leave Islam to follow Jesus Christ. Please pray.

left to right: Malihe, Mina, Pastor Joseph, Somayeh, Masoumeh, plus Mohammad

* IRAQ: CHRISTIAN CRISIS IS EXISTENTIAL

Iraq’s Chaldean Church held its Synod from 21-27 August. In his opening remarks, the Patriarch of Baghdad of the Chaldeans, Cardinal Raphael Louis Sako, warned that in the absence of major systemic political, social, and economic changes, Christians in Iraq are heading for extinction. ‘Iraqi Christians,’ he said, ‘and perhaps Christians of other nations as well, are heading towards disappearance... The Islamic heritage makes Christians second-class citizens and allows the usurpation of their assets…’. He exhorted the Church to move forward in its mission of, ‘helping our people to open themselves to hope, and to arm themselves with faith, to face challenges with the same courage as Christ’. Cardinal Sako requests prayer that Iraq and its Church will be kept ‘under the protection of the Lord’. Please pray.

‘Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfils his purpose for me’ (Psalm 57:1-2 ESV).

* NICARAGUA: ORTEGA MOVES TO SILENCE THE CHURCH

In predominantly Catholic Nicaragua, the Marxist-Leninist former Sandinista Revolutionary now President Daniel Ortego has ramped up measures to silence the Catholic Church. The situation has been escalating since April-May 2018 when the Church opened its doors to shelter the victims of deadly state violence. In the words of the exiled Rev Rafael Bermúdez (26 Aug), ‘The church is in favour of justice. When there is unjust persecution, when silence is imposed, when all freedoms are taken away, it becomes a total social crime.’ In such situations, the Church has a duty to lead with hope, faith, and courage.

On 1 August, the Ortega regime ordered the closure of seven radio stations owned by the Catholic Church. On 3 August, authorities confined Bishop José Álvarez (55) of Matagalpa to the episcopal complex where he lives, as punishment for protesting the closure of the radio stations. The bishop subsequently took to Facebook to live broadcast the Mass for Catholics. On 13 August hundreds of Nicaraguans attended a large-scale Mass at the Cathedral in the capital, Managua, under a heavy police presence after the government prohibited a religious procession, citing ‘internal security’. At 3am on Friday 19 August, security officials abducted the bishop, along with others, including three priests, two seminarians, a deacon and a photographer. While Bishop Álvarez was placed under house arrest, the other seven were sent to El Chipote, a prison notorious for torturing opponents of the regime. Please pray.

* PAKISTAN: CHRISTIANS IMPERILLED AT EVERY TURN

(1) KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA: THE TALIBAN RETURNS.

Residents of north-west Pakistan’s tribal areas are alarmed to find that militants belonging to the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) are not merely moving around openly in several areas of mountainous Swat’s Matta tehsil (subdivision) but have set up a check-post in Balasoor Top. The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) — the Pakistan military’s media wing — insists that only ‘a small number of armed men’ have been observed ‘on a few mountain tops’ located ‘far away from the population’. However, alarmed locals with long memories are not so sure. Residents of Swat (north-west of Peshawar) and North Waziristan (south-west of Peshawar) report a dramatic increase in TTP activity, including kidnappings and targeted assassinations. Peace talks have faltered. Fear is rising. Pray for the Church in N-W Pakistan.

(2) PUNJAB: PLAYING THE RELIGION CARD FOR POLITICAL GAIN.

On 30 July, Malik Ilyas Awan, the Vice President of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) in Punjab, applied to the Deputy Commissioner of Khushab District to have the Ahmadiyya community expelled and ghettoised in Chenab Nagar, the only Ahmadi-majority city in Pakistan. Critically, he demanded that their protection be withdrawn, leaving them exposed to Islamic jihad. Ahmadiyya Muslims follow a subsequent prophet named Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, a Muslim reformer from the late 1800s. Like the Baha’is of Iran, and the Alevis of Turkey and Syria, the Ahmadiyya reject intolerance and jihad. However, their greatest sin is to reject the fundamental doctrine that Muhammad was the final prophet. That makes them not mere ‘hypocrites’ (the Quran’s term for Muslims who reject jihad), but heretics, apostates and infidels, to be killed. According to Awan, granting protection to Ahmadiyyas makes a mockery of Pakistan’s Islamic Constitution. ‘It is requested,’ writes Awan, ‘that their security must be lifted immediately, and enquiry be held in this regard. Those who don’t have faith in the finality of prophet-hood must be ousted from the district.’

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan strongly condemned Awan’s move. Analysts suspect that Awan is playing the religion card for political gain. Of course, it is very possible that after the Ahmadiyya, it could be the Christians. After all, Christians deny the finality of the prophethood of Muhammad, insisting Jesus is God’s Son and final Word and Muhammad is actually no prophet at all. Are Christians to be stripped of protection and herded into ghettos too? If this goes ahead it will bode ill for the Church in Pakistan. Please pray.

 --------------------------------------------

Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted Church.

Elizabeth has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016). She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

See www.ElizabethKendal.com

RLPB 393. Bangladesh: Hidden Genocide in Chittagong Hill Tracts

Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 393 | Wed 08 Feb 2017

Please forward this prayer bulletin widely, and encourage others to sign up to the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin blog. "The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." (James 5:16 NIV)


BANGLADESH: HIDDEN GENOCIDE IN CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS
plus: Jakarta Gubernatorial Elections on Wednesday 15 February

by Elizabeth Kendal

click on map to enlarge.
CHT = green
CHT shares a border with
Mizoram (87% Christian)
and Chin (90% Christian).

On 1 January police raided a hotel in Bandarban district town in eastern Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The raid was launched in response to a tip-off and resulted in four indigenous children being rescued from the clutches of a criminal child trafficking ring. Two traffickers, Abu Babar and Md Hossain, were arrested, whilst their accomplice, Sumon Kheyang, escaped. Over the past seven years police have rescued 72 children from the clutches of this child trafficking ring but it is unknown how many children remain missing. The operation is run by Bengali Islamic fundamentalists. Their modus operandi generally involve recruiting members of indigenous hill tribe communities who then go door-to-door offering to take poor indigenous children to Dhaka and provide them with an education that will improve their prospects in life. Once in the clutches of the traffickers, the children are delivered to Islamic madrassas around the country where they are forcibly Islamised and indoctrinated, all without their parents' knowledge or consent. As horrific as this is, child trafficking for the purpose of forced Islamisation is only one of many gross crimes being committed in the CHT.

In 2014, the Catholic Church
in Bandarban was targeted in Islamist
 anti-Christian propaganda

Around 95 percent of Bangladeshis are ethnic Bengali, of whom around 90 percent are Muslim and 10 percent Hindu. Between one and two percent of Bangladeshis belong to the 12 tribes indigenous to the steep, green, resource-rich Chittagong Hills. Known as Paharis (from pahar meaning 'hill'), they are mostly Buddhist. However, Christianity is well established, growing and widely respected amongst the indigenes for its attention to education, health and human rights.

Whilst the Paharis were marginalised under British colonial rule, their problems began in earnest in 1947 with the partition of British India. Despite being only between three and five percent Muslim, and though the Paharis of the CHT have more in common with their neighbours in eastern India than with Bengali Muslims, the CHT was 'awarded' to Pakistan. Massive exploitation and displacement followed. Consequently, when Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) won its independence in 1971, Pahari leaders immediately requested regional autonomy for CHT within Bangladesh and a ban on Bengali Muslim migration into the region. The request was denied. Instead, the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ordered the tribes to adopt Bengali identity, something they were unwilling to do. In response, the government began facilitating the mass migration of Bengali Muslims into CHT. Tensions soared, an insurgency erupted and in 1977 the Bangladesh Army (which is almost exclusively Bengali Muslim) flooded into CHT. While a 'Peace Accord' was signed in 1997, virtually nothing has been implemented and the predatory mass migration continues, as do gross human rights abuses.

Today, CHT -- now Bangladesh's most militarised region -- is majority Bengali Muslim.  Local indigenous women and children are raped, gang-raped, assaulted, tortured and murdered with impunity; while land theft, forced Islamisation, forced marriage and child trafficking are commonplace. Not only is the region closed to foreigners, Paharis are banned from even speaking to outsiders. In recent years, Islamic fundamentalists have escalated their anti-Christian rhetoric, accusing churches and Christian missionaries of being in the pay of foreign forces that want the Paharis converted so they can be recruited as separatists. This is a developing and exceptionally dangerous situation.

Islamist cartoon (Feb 2010): CHT being severed from Bangladesh by --
on left: the European Union, the CHT Commission, Christian missionary;
on right: two local political parties, the UPDF and JSS
source

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR: 

* the Lord to intervene on behalf of his vulnerable and gravely imperilled children in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hills Tracts (CHT). May regional autonomy with freedom and security become a reality, for the sake of the Church and all those in need of her ministry and message.

* God to frustrate the plans of the Bangladeshi government and military, the Muslim Bengali nationalists and Bangladesh's increasingly influential and dangerous Islamic fundamentalists; may the transmigration of Bengali Muslims in the CHT be not merely halted but reversed and all the plans to Islamise the region come to nothing.

'The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.' (Psalm 33:10, 22 ESV)

* a spiritual breakthrough in Bangladesh; may Islam's spirit of deception be vanquished so that eyes and minds and hearts might be opened to receive the Gospel. 'God's cause will triumph.' (William Carey, pioneer missionary to the Bengali.)


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
-------------------------------------------------------
HIDDEN GENOCIDE IN THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS IN BANGLADESH

Some 95 percent of Bangladeshis are ethnic Bengali (90 percent Muslim, 10 percent Hindu). One to two percent of Bangladeshis belong to tribes indigenous to the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Whilst the tribes are mostly Buddhist, Christianity is well established, growing and respected. When British India was partitioned in 1947, the CHT was 'awarded' to Pakistan, despite being only three to five percent Muslim and despite the indigenes having more in common with their neighbours in eastern India. Today, due to government-driven, military-facilitated transmigration, CHT -- now Bangladesh's most militarised region -- is majority Bengali Muslim. The region is closed to foreigners. Human rights abuses including rape, torture, murder, land theft and forced Islamisation are rife. It is a hidden genocide. Please pray for Bangladesh and the Church in CHT.

------------------------------------------------------

ALSO: please watch and pray concerning Jakarta's gubernatorial elections, to be held on Wednesday 15 February. Polls taken at the end of January show the ethnic Chinese and Christian incumbent, Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama, still leading the other two candidates. Pray for free, fair and peaceful polls and that the Lord will preserve Ahok's life and liberty.

------------------------------------------------------

Elizabeth Kendal is international religious liberty analyst and advocate. She serves as Director of Advocacy at Canberra-based Christian Faith and Freedom (CFF), and is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam at Melbourne School of Theology.

She has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne, Australia, Dec 2012) which offers a Biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and, After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA, June 2016).

See www.ElizabethKendal.com