{"id":5573,"date":"2026-05-07T07:07:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastors-family-beaten-jailed-for-prayer-meeting\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T07:07:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:07:04","slug":"pastors-family-beaten-jailed-for-prayer-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastors-family-beaten-jailed-for-prayer-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor&#8217;s Family Beaten, Jailed for Prayer Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Five Christians in a majority-Buddhist area of Sri Lanka were beaten and jailed after false allegations against them led to a mob attack. Oshana and her family were conducting a prayer service in their home in November 2025 when an angry crowd arrived, claiming that the church intended to close off a local roadway. When Oshana&rsquo;s adult sons tried to address the problem, they were overpowered and beaten, and several other church members were injured. Oshana, her sons, her daughter and another evangelist from their church were arrested and jailed. Though the judge who granted them bail said they could continue to meet in their home, the five Christians still face charges that will be heard in court on June 15, 2026. They ask for prayer for a favorable outcome in court as well as favor with villagers who confessed that they were tricked into joining the mob by the Buddhist leaders who made the false claims.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/globalprayerguide\/sri-lanka\/\">Click here<\/a> to find out about Christian persecution in Sri Lanka and learn how to pray.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.icommittopray.com\/request\/2978\/christians-in-sri-lanka\/\" target=\"_blank\">Post a prayer for Christians in Sri Lanka on iCommitToPray.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five Christians in a majority-Buddhist area of Sri Lanka were beaten and jailed after false allegations against them led to a mob attack. Oshana and her family were conducting a prayer service in their home in November 2025 when an angry crowd arrived, claiming that the church intended to close off a local roadway. When Oshana&#8217;s adult sons tried to address the problem, they were overpowered and beaten, and several other church members were injured.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-i-commit-to-pray","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pastor&#039;s Family Beaten, Jailed for Prayer Meeting - Stories<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastors-family-beaten-jailed-for-prayer-meeting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pastor&#039;s Family Beaten, Jailed for Prayer Meeting - Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Five Christians in a majority-Buddhist area of Sri Lanka were beaten and jailed after false allegations against them led to a mob attack. Oshana and her family were conducting a prayer service in their home in November 2025 when an angry crowd arrived, claiming that the church intended to close off a local roadway. When Oshana&#039;s adult sons tried to address the problem, they were overpowered and beaten, and several other church members were injured.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.persecution.com\/stories\/pastors-family-beaten-jailed-for-prayer-meeting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-07T07:07:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"vomtechsupport\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/pastors-family-beaten-jailed-for-prayer-meeting\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/pastors-family-beaten-jailed-for-prayer-meeting\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"vomtechsupport\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5ff286fd5505fccd2d5ebfd9d4203216\"},\"headline\":\"Pastor&#8217;s Family Beaten, Jailed for Prayer Meeting\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-07T07:07:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/pastors-family-beaten-jailed-for-prayer-meeting\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":190,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/pastors-family-beaten-jailed-for-prayer-meeting\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/05\\\/VOM-Stories-iCommit-PlaceholderV2.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"iCommitToPray\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/pastors-family-beaten-jailed-for-prayer-meeting\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.persecution.com\\\/stories\\\/pastors-family-beaten-jailed-for-prayer-meeting\\\/\",\"name\":\"Pastor's Family Beaten, Jailed for Prayer Meeting - 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