A ferocious thunderstorm tore through Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, on Wednesday, May 13, killing at least 111 people across 26 districts, injuring dozens more, and leaving a wide trail of collapsed homes, snapped electricity poles, and damaged crops in its wake.
Twenty-eight civilians, held captive by armed groups on both sides of the Kuki-Naga divide in Manipur’s Kangpokpi and Senapati districts, were released on Friday, May 15, in a coordinated exchange facilitated by the United Naga Council, civil society organisations, security forces and state government representatives.
The burial of three Thadou church leaders killed in an ambush in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district took place on May 15 at the campus of the Thadou Baptist Association India church at Motbung, with mourners drawn from across the hill districts to attend the final rites.
The government of Karnataka has removed a disputed rule that prevented Muslim female students from wearing the hijab in schools and colleges.
The National Testing Agency (NTA) is working urgently to schedule a fresh date for the NEET-UG 2026 medical entrance examination, which it cancelled on Tuesday, May 12, following what investigators described as a paper leak.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday, May 13, declared that majoritarianism cannot trump constitutionalism in a constitutional democracy, asserting that courts retain the power to interfere when faith-based customs violate “public order, morality or health.”
Three senior Baptist church leaders were shot dead and at least five others injured on Wednesday , May 13, when armed men ambushed their convoy in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district. The victims were returning from the United Baptist Convention Assembly in Churachandpur when gunmen opened fire on their two vehicles between Kotzim and Kotlen villages along the Imphal-Tamenglong highway.
A Kuki village inside Myanmar was reported burnt on 12 May, deepening fears of a wider conflict between two predominantly Christian communities along Manipur’s volatile frontier with Myanmar.
A pastor’s family in Surat district is currently shielded from investigation by a Gujarat High Court stay, after the court found that police had invoked charges against them under the state’s anti-conversion law without obtaining mandatory prior sanction. The matter comes up for hearing in August, when authorities must file their replies.
Church leaders from across India have launched a new national Christian body aimed at strengthening unity among denominations and responding to growing concerns over persecution and discrimination against Christians in the country.
The Gujarat government has handed back administrative control of the Seventh-day Adventist Higher Secondary School in Ahmedabad to its management, four months after the state took over the institution following a student’s murder and allegations of financial irregularities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, May 10, called on Indians to revive work-from-home arrangements, limit foreign travel and stop buying gold for a year, as the ongoing US-Iran war pushed global crude prices to punishing levels and strained India’s ability to manage its import bill.
