Threats against Christians in India’s Orissa state continue though a Maoist group claimed responsibility Sept. 1 for killing Hindu extremist leader Laxmanananda Saraswati and four of his disciples Aug. 23.
Since the murders took place, Hindu extremist groups have blamed Christians for the killings, and Christians in Orissa say the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) and other extremist groups responded with a spate of violence over the past two weeks.
Christian leaders say more than 100 lives have been lost and thousands of houses, churches and institutions damaged or destroyed in the violence.
Asked if he condemned the violence on Christians, VHP Orissa State President Gauri Prasad Rath told Compass Direct news service that he categorically did not. “You should ask me to condemn the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and his associates with AK-47s by Christians,” he said.
Prabhu Kalyan Mahapatra, a local Hindu and freelance journalist, said the VHP extended Saraswati’s funeral procession to incite violence.
“The funeral was taken from Saraswati’s ashram [religious center] in Jalespeta to his other ashram in Chakapada in Kandhamal, covering around 134 kilometers, when the distance between the two ashrams is merely 70 kilometers,” he said.
The attacks on Christians began during the funeral procession, he added.
The Orissa government put a ban on a rally planned by the VHP to take the ashes of Saraswati in another public procession throughout Orissa villages beginning Sept. 7, according to the Press Trust of India news agency. The ban was announced by the state government in hearing of a petition filed by Archbishop Raphael Cheenath from Orissa in the Supreme Court of India.
The state government, however, fears fresh trouble on Sunday, as it is believed that the VHP may still go ahead with the processions.
“The state government has decided to rush additional force to the riot-affected areas in view of VHP’s proposed ‘kalas puja’ [worship of the remains of a deceased] of slain Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati,” reported The Indian Express newspaper today.
According to the Evangelical Fellowship of India, mobs led by extremist groups are “roaming in Kandhamal and threatening the Christians to ‘reconvert’ or face death.”
Christians make up 2.4 percent of Orissa’s population, or 897,861 of the total 3.7 million people. (CD)
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