Orissa Governor M C Bhandare Wednesday asked violence victims in Kandhamal to start life afresh and promised them safety and security, affirming the state government's resolve to prevent recurrence of communal riots in the state.
"Communal riots will not be allowed to take place again. The police, administration and state government are fully geared to protect your life and property," Bhandare said, while interacting with inmates of a relief camp set up for the riot hit people here. Read
Orissa Violence Sparks Trouble For Christians In Gujarat
September 9, 2008
AHMEDABAD, India (UCAN) -- Ongoing anti-Christian violence in Orissa state has created additional problems for the Church in Gujarat, where a wave of attacks on Christians began 10 years ago.
On Sept. 3, some people threw stones at Mt. Carmel High School and tried to storm St. Xavier's School, both in Ahmedabad, Gujarat's commercial capital, 915 kilometers southwest of New Delhi.
The attacks came a day after Christians organized silent rallies in Ahmedabad and Nadiad, another major town in the state, to protest the attacks on Christians in Orissa.
In Gujarat during the last week of August, some people tried to lay siege to a church and Shri Sachchidanand School in Rajkot, accusing Christian missioners of killing their leaders in Orissa. Another group tried to storm St. Xavier's Church in Bhavnagar. Rajkot is 225 kilometers southwest of Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar is 180 kilometers southeast of Rajkot.
Bishop Thomas Macwan of Ahmedabad told UCA News that people apparently wanted to create trouble in view of the Orissa developments.
Father O. Coutinho, pastor of St. Xavier's Parish in Ahmedabad, says some wanted to terrorize Christians for organizing the Sept. 2 peace rallies and because all 500 Christian schools in Gujarat had closed on Aug. 29 to protest the Orissa violence.
Christians in Gujarat, where the BJP has ruled for the last 12 years, have endured a difficult period since Christmas Eve 1998, when right-wing Hindu activists launched attacks on priests, nuns and Christians in tribal areas, burning bibles and churches. The extremists accused Christian missioners of exploiting tribal poverty and ignorance to increase Christian numbers.
The Orissa violence began after Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his associates were killed in Orissa's Kandhamal district, where the Hindu religious leader was based. Hindu radicals have destroyed more than 4,000 houses in the state and also burned several schools, churches, convents and presbyteries.
Carmelite Sister Priscilla Lobo, Mt. Carmel High School principal, told UCA News that some people came around 2:30 a.m. in two unregistered cars. "They went around the school and threw stones at the building, breaking windowpanes," she said, adding that they also "used offensive language."
She said she woke up hearing the noise and went outside to see what was happening. "I could see five persons but could not identify any because it was dark," she said.
After the attackers left, she rushed to the police station, 20 meters away. "The policeman on night duty did not act," she said, and added he told her he could not do anything since the cars had no numbers. Police could have caught the people had they acted immediately, she maintained.
Father M.G. Raj, principal of St. Xavier's School less then two kilometers away, believes the same culprits then went to his school. The group tried to scale the main gate but gave up as two Doberman dogs on campus rushed at them, he recounted to UCA News.
While leaving, they threw firecrackers at the dogs "but luckily they did not explode," the Jesuit priest said. He added that school authorities did not register a case because the attackers did not enter the premises.
Sister Lobo and Father Raj said their schools earlier faced trouble on Aug. 15, India's Independence Day. People came at night to Mt. Carmel High School and threw stones while shouting abuses against Christians. Sister Lobo said she dismissed the incident at the time as mischief.
Father Raj reported that some people entered the campus by scaling the gate and then removed telephone cables from the guard's room. It was after this incident that the dogs were let out on campus at night, he said.
Meanwhile, Father Joji Mathew, principal of the school in Rajkot, reported police rounded up some people. He said, "There is no problem now." Read
Christians treated worse than animals, says Father Bernard
Fr Bernard Digal is the treasurer of the Archdiocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar. He was wounded, beaten for hours by radical Hindus, left for a whole night unconscious, half naked, in the forest, until he was found by his driver. Now he is in the intensive care unit in Mumbai’s Holy Spirit Hospital.
“My heart is filled with gratitude because God saved my life. But whilst I am being treated here my people are hiding in the forest and even there, there is no security,” he said. “There are mothers breast-feeding their infants, children, young and old people, all hanging on a precarious thread, in terror. Even refugee camps are not free of dangers.”
On the 25 Father Bernard went to visit Father Alexander Chandi in Sankrakhol Parish when a Hindu mob attacked the latter’s church.
“On the night of 25 August the parish church and the priest’s house were sacked and set on fire. From far away we could hear the crowd shouting hate-filled slogans, levelling accusations against Christianity. . . . Fearing for our lives we fled into the forest.”
“The extremists also set my car on fire,” Father Bernard said. “Whilst Father Alexander stayed in the forest I went looking for some relatives who were in the area. I walked at least 15 kilometres. At one point the extremists caught me and beat be with iron rods, lances, axes and big stones. I don’t know for how long they beat me because I lost consciousness. My driver found me the next day, after ten hours, and I was taken to hospital. It is only there that I regained consciousness.”
Without acrimony but also without any warmth, Father Bernard said: “I was beaten and left naked in the forest for ten hours. Others were cut to pieces or burnt alive. Is all this human? Or is it an attack against life itself?”
“In Kandhamal the lives of Christians are under attack from Hindutva radicals,” the priest said. “The police and the government are incapable of doing anything about it. Sometimes they are not even willing to take preventive measures to contain these forces who are destroying our life and dignity.”
Still refugee camps need tighter controls to prevent Hindu radicals from infiltrating them. The wounded require medical treatment. And everyone is wondering when they can go back to rebuild their homes. Read Nirmala Carvalho
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