Police in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh arrested two Pentecostal pastors and one other man late last week after hearing they were involved in efforts to convert people to Christianity, another incident highlighting the plight of India’s minority Christians.

The Press Trust of India reported Pentecostal pastors Vivek Kumar, Mohit Chaudhary and another man identified only as Amit were arrested on May 27 by police acting on a complaint that individuals were being lured to a Christian prayer meeting that drew people from multiple districts to the capital of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow.

A senior police officer said complainant Pankaj Shukla alleged the group attending the prayer meeting included more than twenty people – a mix of men and women – from several different towns and cities across two states.

The complainant expressed apprehension that an attempt could be made to convert them, the officer said.

Based on the complaint, police registered a case under relevant provisions of the India’s criminal code and the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Religious Conversion Act of 2021.

Issued in March, the 2026 Annual Report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) says religious freedom conditions in India “continued to deteriorate” during 2025.

USCIRF also recommended that the U.S. government designate India as a a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC).

This marks the seventh consecutive year (since 2020) that the independent bipartisan advisory body has recommended this designation for India.

The USCIRF recommends CPC status for nations whose governments engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing, and egregious” violations of religious freedom.

According to the report’s chapter on India, religious freedom conditions in the country continued to deteriorate throughout 2025.

USCIRF details a rise in tolerated vigilante violence targeting religious minorities, particularly Christians and Muslims, under the guise of enforcing cow slaughter laws and preventing forced conversions.

The report said that in 2025, religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate as the government introduced and enforced new legislation targeting religious minority communities and their houses of worship.

“Several states undertook efforts to introduce or strengthen anti-conversion laws to include harsher prison sentences. Indian authorities also facilitated widespread detention and illegal expulsion of citizens and religious refugees and tolerated vigilante attacks against religious minority communities,” it said.

In 2026, USCIRF stated that accusations of forced conversion were being used to justify arrests and attacks against religious minorities, and specifically mentioned arrests in Uttar Pradesh under strengthened anti-conversion provisions.

USCIRF said the US Congress should reintroduce and pass the Transnational Repression Reporting Act of 2024 to “require the annual reporting of acts of transnational repression by the Indian government targeting religious minorities in the United States.