Christian father and son hacked to death in Orissa
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The man was a very influential Christian leader. Radical Hindus seek to eliminate community leaders. Widespread mistrust of police action. Four extremists have been arrested after a long delay, accused of raping a sister. –
Asia News reports Two
tribal Christians, a father and
his son, were killed by a group of Hindu extremists on the night of
October 2 in the village of Sindhupanka, in the district of Kandhamal.
They were Dushashan Majhi and his 15-year-old son, Shyam Sunder
Majhi. The two were sleeping amid the remains of their home, destroyed
the day before by Hindu radicals. Dushashan was the leader of a
Christian community, highly respected and influential. The elimination
of community leaders has become the prime objective of fundamentalist
groups, to stop the action of Christians and what they call “forced
conversions”.
AFP reports Hardline Hindus had blamed Christians for the killing of Swami
Laxamananda Saraswati, which led to widespread rioting and the death of
at least 33 people in Hindu-Christian clashes in eastern Orissa state. The Hindu leader had been associated with a radical group opposed to Hindus converting to Christianity. But the Maoists said they killed Saraswati because he was forcing tribal people to convert to Hinduism.
The Times of India reports The brutal rape and
murder of a Hindu orphan by Hindu fanatics, who thought she was Christian
because she was being sheltered by them, has added to the Orissa government’s
embarrassment. It is already under fire for failing to contain the saffron mob’s
rampage in the state.
A Christian priest claimed on Saturday that
Rajani Majhi, who was burnt alive by a mob at Padampur in Bargarh district on
August 25, had been gangraped before being killed. The revelation has been
rubbished by police. But it came a day after the state government confirmed a
medical report that said a nun had been raped in
Kandhmal.
The Gulf Daily News reports Indian authorities arrested four people and suspended a police
officer yesterday following a medical report indicating a young
Catholic nun was raped in an attack by a Hindu mob during religious
clashes. The government of eastern Orissa state has ordered an investigation into the incident.
The nun filed a police complaint on August 25, alleging she was
raped when a large Hindu mob attacked a prayer hall in the state’s
Kandhamal district where she worked. Police said she told them she was
paraded naked after the rape. Police refused to give her name or age.
The state government suspended K N Rao for not acting promptly on the complaint.
UCAN reports Around 6,000 people in Pune took part at a sit-in on Sept. 29 to
protest ongoing anti-Christian violence in the country. As of that date
around 45 people were known to have been killed in Orissa, the eastern
state where most of the violence has been concentrated. By Oct. 3 the
number of confirmed deaths since violence began there five weeks
earlier exceeded 50.
“The daylong peaceful demonstration brought together not only
Christian denominations but even Hindus and Muslims,” Bishop Valerian
D’Souza of Poona told UCA News after the rally. He said the violence
was “an unprecedented massacre of Christians.”