TURKMENISTAN POLICE INCREASE PRESSURE ON LOCAL CHURCHPolice have apparently launched another major crackdown on a Baptist congregation in the town of Balkanabad in western Turkmenistan, threatening church members that if they meet for worship again they will be fined. Baptists in Turkmenistan reported that an officer from the criminal investigation department arrived at the home of Nikolai Matsenko on the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 20. After questioning him about the church’s activity, the officer warned him that if any further services take place in his flat he will be fined. Later that evening, another police officer arrived at the home, presenting himself as the new local policeman and declaring that he had come to get to know him. At 11 p.m. the following evening, a group of people again knocked on the door. One of them introduced himself as the local policeman (although this was not the same man as the officer who had arrived the previous day). Police officers reportedly visited several other church members in the town, including new converts, at the end of August. One young man was forcibly dragged from his home to the police station.From the news flow at Intercessors Network
