Contact: Loralei Coyle 202-682-4131, 202-905-6852 cell, lcoyle@ird-renew.org; Radio Interviews: Jeff Walton, jwalton@ird-renew.org; both with the Institute on Religion and Democracy
WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 /Christian Newswire/ -- Anti-Christian violence in India's Orissa State was further inflamed this past Saturday after suspected Maoists murdered a Hindu leader and four of his disciples. Radical Hindus, seeking to rid India of Christians, accused the tiny Christian community of the murders.
Reports from Compass Direct News Service say that Hindu extremists paraded the leader's body through villages to anger crowds and shouted, "Kill Christians and destroy their institutions."
Violent mobs have since destroyed churches, homes, orphanages and convents. Woman and young girls have been raped, while pastors, priests, nuns, and Christian lay people have been killed. On Friday, word came from Phulbani District--one of the worst affected areas of Orissa State--that the extremists have compiled a hit-list of Christian leaders to kill. They have already slain five pastors by sword and killed more than twenty-seven other Christians. The extremists have taken an oath to convert Christians to Hinduism by force or to kill all who will not renounce their faith in Christ.
In December Hindu extremists went on a ten-day rampage in Orissa State that began on Christmas Eve. The mob of nearly five thousand burned and destroyed 730 Christian homes and 102 churches in 83 villages. In that attack, at least four people were killed, and thousands fled.
IRD Director of Religious Liberty Programs Faith J.H. McDonnell commented,
"Reports IRD has received from Orissa State reveal that villages are empty. Christians have been forced to flee to the nearby mountains for safety.
"The gruesome violence is surreal in light of the natural beauty and seeming 'normality' of the area. It is all the more horrific that such barbarous actions and irrational cruelty could be occurring in a place whose tourism web sites urge you to visit Orissa's 'fun-filled fairs and festivals,' and 'drench yourself in fun' on Orissa's 'pristine beaches.'
"Our source says that neither the state nor central government, the Army or police forces, have been able to protect the Christians and bring them out of the mountains to a place of safety. He says that the extremists are 'openly moving in thousands with swords, axes, guns, grenades, sticks, spears, etc.,' and that the only way to help the Christians at present is to drop food packages and other relief aid by helicopter into the dense jungle."
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