Court orders troops to fight anti-Christian violence

A team of residents from a region hit hard by Hindu anti-Christian violence lobbied the nation's president for help

Violence by Hindus against Christians in India, especially in Orissa state, has been rocking the stability of the region, and now the Indian Supreme Court has ordered four more police battalions to protect the believers in the worst region, the Kandhamal district, according to a report.

The high court also ordered state government officials in Orissa to do more to protect Christians, after several dozen deaths have been reported and thousands have been displaced since the attacks started Aug. 22, according to the Assist News report.

The riots and attacks on Christians began about the time an anti-Christian Hindu leader, Swami Laxamanananda Saraswat, was murdered, sources in India report.

"His followers blamed his death on Christians, sending Hindu extremists on a deadly rampage," the report said.

"Persecution has become a way of life; it is the norm in Orissa," K.P. Yohannan, chief of the Gospel for Asia Christian ministry, said. "But the Lord is not abandoning His people in this state or anywhere else. He will always show up on time – His time."

Reports indicate there are some 50,000 Christians hiding in the jungles of Orissa because they fear the systematic Hindu attacks in which members of Christianity are attacked, raped, burned and killed. There were reports that Maoist sympathizers issued a statement claiming credit for the murder of Saraswat, but Hindus continue to blame Christians, reports from the region said.

So far Hindu extremists have burned an estimated 300 villages where Christians were in the majority, and they have destroyed more than 4,000 homes. Additionally, about 100 churches have been demolished.

According to the Assist report, members of one Gospel For Asia missionary family in the Khandhamal district of Orissa were among those who had to run for their lives.

"The family fled to the jungle but was unable to bring any of their personal belongings. When they returned the next day, the homes and everything in them were completely destroyed. Now they have nothing, not even food or clothing," the report said.

Gospel For Asia said 27 of the churches served by its missionaries have been destroyed.

The group also said some 10,000 Christians left homeless in the rioting have taken refuge in government relief camps, and the newest demands by Hindus have been that Christians abandon their faith and "agree to be 'reconverted' to Hinduism."

"Those who agree to become Hindu are then asked to join in destroying the church buildings and the houses of Christians," said a GFA leader in Orissa.

According to the All India Christian Council, the violence even has begun spilling over to neighboring regions, including Madhya Pradesh.

A delegation of citizens from the region met this week with the Indian president to talk about ways to protect the innocent. The group cited a series of attacks last Christmas that left four Christians dead and 105 churches and 730 Christian homes destroyed.

While additional police should help, the root cause needs to be addressed, the organization told the president.

"Your Excellency," they wrote. "The violence in Orissa continues without adequate police forces to stop mobs which break curfew and harm innocent civilians, chasing our fellow countrymen and women like animals in the forests where they have taken refuge since August 24. Today the irresponsible leaders of hardliner Hindu nationalist groups are damaging our great democracy and secularism of the nation.

"This is to request you to use your powers as president of India, and the tremendous force of your good offices, to impress on the central government to rush adequate union forces, including contingents of the armed forces if required, to restore law and order and governance in the Kandhamal region.

"The consequences of any further delay, we the secular civil society fear, may be catastrophic for the small Christian community in the state in particular, for peace in Orissa in general, and for the fair name of India as a secular country," the group wrote.