Sangh Parivar (Hindu radical group) wants to remove every Christian trace in Orissa

Christians are not allowed to pray even in government-run refugee camps. The ground on which homes and churches once stood are taken over and “cleansed” of every trace of violence. Hindus tell raped nun to marry her rapist. The hue and cry is still on for Christians.

Bhubaneshwar (AsiaNews) – The Hindu fundamentalist groups that have been involved for more than a month in Orissa’s anti-Christian pogrom are becoming more methodical. Sometimes with police assistance they prevent Christians from meeting to pray, try to murder new converts, and are trying to take over the land where churches and Christian homes once stood in order to wipe off the face of the earth any trace of Christian presence. Whilst Indian public opinion is shocked by the violence, especially by the rape of a nun, Hindu radicals want to reintroduce a tribal law that would have the rape victim marry her rapist.

The destruction of 180 churches and 4,500 homes, burnt and razed to the ground, and the 50,000 refugees this has generated are but the first chapter in a programme whose ultimate goal is to do away with Christianity in this state from the roots up. Christians are treated like criminals even in refugee camps set up by the government for those who fled their homes.

After visiting three such camps, Fr Ajay Singh, director of Jan Vikas, a centre for social action run by the diocese of Cuttack-Bhubaneshwar, told AsiaNews that “our people are being treated like animals. They have been given just one blanket per family and sanitation and hygiene are simply non-existent. But what is even more tragic is the fact that they are not even allowed to pray, and are instead closely monitored by security forces. Women are particularly vulnerable—they are not allowed to get any counselling so that their emotional health is deteriorating rapidly.”

Outside, in the villages already destroyed by the Hindu fundamentalist fury, things are not getting any better. According to eyewitness accounts collected by the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC), the Sangh Parivar (an umbrella organisation of Hindu extremist groups) has began “cleansing” the land where Christians had their homes and churches, torched to the ground in the past weeks.

They are even pulling out the bricks from foundations, filling up holes in the ground, removing marks indicating demarcation lines of fields owned by Christians so as to divide them up among themselves.

“Their goal is to use fraudulent means to take over Christian property,” said GCIC Chairman Sajan K George, “showing that there was no Christian presence, no Christian house, no Christian church. I am concerned that they might start building Hindu temples on land where Christian homes and churches once stood.”

For him behind this purge there might be another motive. “Hindu radicals want to hide from public opinion the evidence of their brutality against innocent people now that Indians have seen what their attacks have done.”

Indian newspapers are in fact full of stories describing the tragic events, especially Hindu violence against women, with the rape of a nun as the lowest point.

In response to public criticism for its inaction in this case, Orissa state authorities have held three Hindu activists, Mitu Patnaik, Saroj Ghadai and Munna Ghadai, who were arrested in Kerala a month after the fact. All three are from Baliguda (Orissa).

In view of the gravity of the situation Hindu fundamentalist publications and organisations have launched a campaign to play down the facts.

Lal Krishna Advani, leader of the fundamentalist-friendly Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), condemned the rape as a “shameful crime” but other related groups like the Bajrang Dal are raising doubts, saying that the he nun might have been “consenting”.

Last Monday also saw five thousand radical Hindu women demonstrate in K Nuagaon demanding that “the victim marry her rapist in accordance with local tradition.”

As if this was not enough the anti-Christian campaign has opened a new chapter in its attempt to stop conversions to Christianity, forcing instead new converts to re-convert to Hinduism by threats of violence

Last Sunday a student association, the Kandhamal Chatra Sangharsa Samiti, called for a moratorium on conversions by Christian NGOs to honour the late Swami Laxamananda Saraswati whose lifetime work (for 45 years) was to stop Christian conversions.

It was his murder by a Maoist group that unleashed the anti-Christian rage because Hindu fundamentalists blamed Christians for his death.

As part of this campaign Hindu fanatics in Kandhamal district have prepared a reconvert-or-die list that includes people like Pabitra Mohan Katta, a man from Adigar village. Ten years ago Pabitra was a follower of Swami Laxamananda and a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) before he became a Christian. On 26 August his home was set on fire but he managed to get out unscathed thanks to his Hindu brother’s intervention. A few days later his brother’s home was however torched as well.

Meanwhile some Christians are “reconverting” (see photo) to Hinduism, forced to burn Bibles and prayer books, have their heads shaved, coerced into drinking cow urine (to purify them), placed for days under the watchful eye of Hindu groups so that they do not have any contacts with their former co-religionists.

Here’s an account I received in a prayer request. It’s long, but it tells what’s going on there.

This is is a request for prayer for YWAM missionaries and their churches in Orissa, India.
The request came Mable Hurst, an associate of HCJB Global.

Please read and make this a matter of urgent prayer.

Dear beloved sponsors and friends of Good News India.

We have never seen anything like this. We knew that Orissa was the most
resistant and hostile State in India as far as the Gospel is concerned. And we
brushed off the continuous threats and harassment we faced as we went about His
work. But none of our staff imagined that they would see this kind of
carnage.... And it seems to be totally under the radar of the Western Media ....

Let me explain.... A militant Hindu priest and 4 of his attendants, who were
zealously going around the villages of Orissa and ‘reconverting’ people back to
Hinduism, were gunned down by unknown assailants in Central Orissa last
weekend. Immediately the Christians were blamed. The cry rose up...’Kill the
Christians!’

And the horror began.... In the past 4 days, we have first hand witness to
hundreds of churches being blown up or burned and many, many dozens of Christian
tribals have been slaughtered. For no other reason than they bear the name of Christ.

Night and day I have been in touch with our Good News India Directors spread
across 14 Dream Centers in Orissa... they are right in the middle of all this chaos.

In Tihidi, just after the police came to offer protection, a group of 70 blood-thirsty

militants came to kill our staff and destroy the home. They were not allowed to get in,

but they did a lot of damage to our Dream Center by throwing rocks and bricks and

smashing our gate, etc.

They have promised to come back and ‘finish the job.’ Our kids and staff are
locked inside and have stayed that way with doors and windows shut for the

past 3 days. It has been a time of desperately calling on the Lord in prayer.

More police have come to offer protection. In Kalahandi, the police and some
local sympathizers got to our dream center and gave our staff and kids about 3
minutes notice to vacate. No one had time to even grab a change of clothes or
any personal belonging. As they fled, the blood thirsty mob came to kill
everyone in the building. We would have had a mass funeral there, but for His
grace. In Phulbani, the mob came looking for Christian homes and missions. The
local Hindu people, our neighbors turned them away by saying that there were no
Christians in this area. So they left. We had favor. The same thing happened in
Balasore.

All our dream centers are under lock down with the kids and staff huddled
inside and police outside. The fanatics are circling outside waiting for a
chance to kill. Others were not so fortunate. In a nearby Catholic
orphanage, the mob allowed the kids to leave and locked up a Priest and
a computer teacher in house and burned them to death. Many believers have been
killed and hacked into pieces and left on the > road.... even women and children.

At another orphanage run by another organization, when this began,

the Director and his wife jumped on their motorbike and simply fled,

leaving all the children and staff behind. Every one of our GNI directors that I

have spoken to said: ‘We stay with our kids.... we live together or die together,

but we will never abandon what God has called us to do.’

More than 5000 Christian families have had their homes burned or
destroyed. They have fled into the jungles and are living in great fear waiting
for the authorities to bring about peace. But so far, no peace is foreseen.
This will continue for another 10 days.... supposedly th e 14 day mourning
period for the slain Hindu priest. Many more Christians will die and their
houses destroyed. Many more churches will be smashed down. The Federal
government is trying to restore order and perhaps things will calm down.

We ask for your prayers. Only the Hand of God can calm this storm. None of us know the
meaning of persecution. But now our kids and staff know what that means. So many
of our kids coming from Hindu backgrounds are confused and totally bewildered at
what is happening around them. So many of their guardians have fled into the
jungles and are unable to come and get them during these trying times.

Through all this, I am more determined than ever to continue with our goal:

the transformation of a community by transforming its children.
Orissa will be saved... that is our heart’s cry. If we can take these thousands
of throw-away children and help them to become disciples of Jesus, they will
transform an entire region. It is a long term goal, but it is strategic thinking
in terms of the Great Commission.

What can you do? First, please uphold all this in fervent prayer. Second, pass
this e-mail on to as many friends as you can. We must get the word out and
increase our prayer base for this is spiritual warfare at its most basic meaning.

We are literally fighting the devil in order to live for His Kingdom. The next 10 days

are crucial. We pray for peace and calm to pervade across Orissa.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please pass it on and help us to
get as many people to partner with us on this cutting edge effort to fulfill His
mandate: Go and make disciples of all nations.... Prayer works!

Blessings, Chip & Sandy Wanner Col 2:2 MBI
Team Facilitators to YWAM frontlines

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