KANDHAMAL, India — Nearly 11 months after an unprecedented wave of anti-Christian attacks shook the eastern Indian state of Orissa, a reign of terror continues in the area as the former rioters issue death threats to witnesses.
Of the more than 750 cases filed in various police stations in Kandhamal district and neighboring Gajapati district, only one has resulted in conviction. Some trials are under way amid reports of armed extremists threatening to kill witnesses. Dibya Paricha of the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar Catholic Archdiocese said several witnesses are shrinking away to save their lives. On July 9, a witness in Salapsahi village under the Phiringia police station refused to testify in a murder case.
“During the trial, the complainant, the younger brother of the victim, said he did not know anything about the case,” said Paricha, coordinator of the Christian Legal Association’s legal cell in Kandhamal. “The previous day, he had said that he would tell the truth so that the culprits would be punished. … From a reliable source, we came to know that he was threatened with death.”
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