12 churches attacked in eastern India
Posted: Wednesday, December 26, 2007, 10:46 (GMT)
BHUBANESWAR - Hundreds of federal police were deployed in India's eastern state of Orissa on Wednesday as Hindu hardliners burnt and damaged 12 churches in communal clashes, killing at least one person, police said.
The reported injury of a local Hindu leader by a Christian group on Monday sparked two days of violence over Christmas in the Kandhamal district of southern Orissa by hardliners who accuse Christian groups of converting low-caste Hindus.
"The situation is tense but under control," said B.B. Mishra, a state inspector-general of police.
Local television channels showed one ransacked church, with its windows smashed and broken furniture strewn across the floor. Another channel showed charred remains of a church roof.
The hardliners, some linked to India's main Hindu nationalist grouping, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have often accused Christian priests of bribing poor tribespeople and low-caste Hindus to change their faith.
Many of the churches targeted were makeshift places of worship, often built with thatched roofs and mud walls, local media reported.
A senior Christian leader said state authorities had turned a blind eye to the violence. He compared the situation to that in Gujarat state, where a BJP-led government has been accused of inciting violence against Muslim and Christian minority communities.
"I feel the government has allowed them to continue this sort of thing somehow, because I am afraid they are repeating what happened in Gujarat in the last two-three years," Raphael Cheenath, Archbishop of Bhubaneswar, the provincial capital, told local television.
B. Barik, a local Hindu organisation leader, said the clashes began after Christian groups placed religious statues at a Hindu religious site.
Orissa, now governed by a BJP ally, has witnessed some of the worst attacks on Christians in the past, including the 1999 murders of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two children who were burned to death inside their car by a mob.
Christian groups say lower-caste Hindus who convert do so willingly to escape the highly stratified and oppressive Hindu caste system.
But several BJP-ruled states have passed anti-conversion laws. Christians account for around 2 percent of mainly Hindu India's 1.1 billion people.
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Added: Monday, January 14, 2008, 18:08 (GMT)
Attack on christians,churches and instituion is seen as a perenial situation in Orissa.But it was a calculated millitant attack which destroyed the secular fabrics of our nation.The state and the concerned department are part to play in covering up and washing their hands as if nothing has happened.
The chief minister visited the district in three occasions but failed to meet the need of the poeple.Relifs are denied to christians.When ladies ask for reliefs they call for their husbands and book illegal cases in their names.Daughters were raped at Ulipadar in Jhinjiriguda by the RSS,Bajrang outfits under the command of the leader Laxmanananda Saraswati .In his name fabricated message flashed in papers as if he was attacked.The rape victims are crying to get their justice. The culprits move freely under the banner of the police.
Christians are in threat left their villages and till now they are hiding.The discrimination against christians are seen by the concerned officers.However it a shameful action of a superior animality.Freedom of religion which constitution guarantees but these outfits take the laws into their hands and causing huge damage to the nation.The organizations and leaders need to arrested and banned their organisation which campaigns hatred for other religions.The collapse of ethical values. There is no morality.Man has become monkey doing the similar nature.Lack of education and biashed religious intolerance are a threat to our nation's peace.Responsible authorities must guard these to avoid further untoward events.
kulakanta , paradeep,India
Added: Friday, December 28, 2007, 20:49 (GMT)
12 Churches attacked in Eastern India
It is important that the BJP, VHP and Swami Laxamananda Saraswati the perpetrators of hatred and communal riots should be taken to task. Not only are these people living behind the times but they continue to do what Al Qaida is doing to foment trouble and all Islamists are being blamed. In a new world of today hatred has no place. If as the BJP, VHP and the Swami claim that they are educated then surely they would be able to have a more balanced and humanitarian outlook. They would not want to be seen as "barbarians" and all Hindus dubbed as fanatics. The world has shrunk and has become a global village. Will the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Manmohan Singh prevail in having India seen not only in India but abroad as a modern and tolerant nation. I sincerely hope he will address the issue. God Bless India.
P. Fernandes, Toronto, Canada
Added: Friday, December 28, 2007, 19:05 (GMT)
12 Churches attacked in Eastern India!!!!
In Toronto even though it's a predominantly Christian country, one of the best and biggest Hindi Temple has been built as well the government has permitted so many Muslim mosques to be built? Why is the majority Hindu Party in India allowed to create havoc and fear among its minority Christian followers? Is it because that Christians are perceived as too meek to protest, but then again Christians and the Christian Institutions that have provided the best education availed by most of the Ministers and their children in India has to tolerate the attacks even in modern times. Move on INDIA and it's leaders, all the world is watching and listening.
P. Fernandes, Toronto, Canada
Added: Friday, December 28, 2007, 18:57 (GMT)
12 Churches Attacked in India - News on Canadian TV Channels
Can't believe that this is happening in India. I thought this could happen in Pakistan and other Islamic Countries but not in India. How does one stop these fundamentalists in India? I would think that the Fundamentalist Parties like the BJP, Shiv Sena and a few more like them to be boycotted or else the fair name of India which has always been a Secular Country would be tarnished.
P. Fernandes, Toronto, Canada
