Attacks in India’s Orissa state leave nearly 50 people dead

By Catholic News Service

BHUBANESWAR, India (CNS)—One woman was axed to death and 10 people were wounded as anti-Christian violence in Orissa continued.

The Sept. 30 killing raised the number of confirmed deaths to 47 in the violence that began in the eastern Indian state Aug. 24.

In the predawn attack, groups of armed Hindu extremists descended on Gadaguda and Rudangia villages in Orissa’s Kandhamal district and selectively attacked Christian homes, Father Leo Parichha, the parish priest, told the Asian Church news agency UCA News.

The attackers came with gasoline bombs, swords, axes and knives and “brutally attacked sleeping families,” said the priest, who left the parish for safety in late August after the anti-Christian violence began.

The priest said his parish covers both villages. Several days earlier, on the night of Sept. 25, hundreds of fanatics destroyed the church, the priest’s house and the Missionaries of Charity convent in the parish compound.

An 8-year-old boy and his mother were among those critically injured in the Sept. 30 attack that began around 4 a.m., said the priest, who now stays in the state capital, Bhubaneswar.
Father Parichha said Catholics and Protestants in the villages did not expect the attack because most families there are Christian. About 35 of Rudangia’s 40 families belong to Christian denominations, while Gadaguda has 25 Christian and five Hindu families.

According to information the priest received from survivors, the attackers burned down Christians’ houses using gasoline bombs and attacked the escaping people with knives, swords and wooden sticks. They looted valuables, demolished houses and burned the household items.
“The burning is still continuing. There is no one to stop them. People are fleeing for their lives,” the priest told UCA News hours after the attacks.

On Sept. 28, three bodies, including that of a woman, were fished out of the Salunki River. The same day, 30 Catholic houses in the Daringabadi area were attacked, looted and set on fire. The attackers also reportedly feasted on some livestock.

These attacks cannot happen without the support of the local Hindu families, Father Parichha said.

“They support, help and invite Hindus to attack us,” he said.

The hatred has several roots, including jealousy over Christians’ progress and the desire to possess Christian farmland, he added.

The attacks also have political significance for Hindu fanatic groups that support the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, a partner in the state’s ruling coalition.

“There is no letup in the attacks,” Father Parichha said. “The world does not get the details, but it has been constantly going on.”

The violence began Aug. 24, the day after a Hindu leader and four associates were killed in the Kandhamal district. The leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, had for decades opposed Christian missionary activities and Hindus converting to Christianity. A Maoist group claimed responsibility for the murders, but the Hindu extremists blamed Christians for the murders and began attacking them.

By the end of September, extremists had burned down about 4,500 Christian houses, 100 churches and 20 other Church institutions, including convents and rectories. The violence has been concentrated in Kandhamal, where the slain swami was based.

The violence also has displaced an estimated 50,000 people, who are now hiding in forests, living in state-run relief camps or staying with relatives in cities and towns outside the troubled areas.