The northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (map) is 80% Hindu and 19% Muslim; only 0.2% of its population is Christian.

“The fact that nuns have also been targeted evinces a sinister new development in the current wave of anti-Christian persecution,” said Sajan George, president of the Global Council of Indian Christians. “In today’s political climate in India, wearing a religious habit means being marked out as a ‘target’ or an ‘agent of conversion’ by right-wing vigilantes.”