08621
August 28, 2008

Presbyterians asked to pray for Christians in India

Violence erupts after assassination of Hindu leader

by Jerry L. Van Marter
Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) leaders have assured Christians in the eastern India state of Orissa that they are in the church’s thoughts and prayers after extreme violence erupted there over the weekend and continues unabated.

“We are shocked and dismayed at hearing of the Orissa situation,” the Rev. Insik Kim, the PC(USA)’s Asia/Pacific coordinator, wrote in a message to the Rev. Enos Das Pradhan, general secretary of the Church of North India (CNI), the PC(USA)’s partner church in the stricken region. “The killing burning and torture of innocent people has got to stop immediately … please know that the people of Orissa are in our thoughts and prayers.”

Violence in Orissa broke out last Saturday (Aug. 23), when gunmen killed Hindu leader Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati. Police have blamed the crime on Maoist rebels, but Hindu extremists have retaliated by attacking Christian neighborhoods, including an orphanage. The fighting has left 11 dead.

The attacks included the burning to then ground of the CNI Boy’s Hostel at Sunapanga, leaving 40 underprivileged boys, many of them orphans, shelterless. The boys and the hostel’s staff are apparently camped out in the nearby forests. Pradhan told Kim that four of the six CNI churches in Orissa have been destroyed.

In an email to Kim from Pradhan which arrived here Wednesday (Aug. 27), CNI executive committee member B.D. Das, a lawyer in Orissa reported:

“Several churches and prayer halls were torched, police outposts were attacked and about 20 vehicles damaged. Several educational institutions, Christian shops and houses were damaged and two police outposts were ransacked. Activists accompanying the body of the slain leader defied curfew and held processions passing through Phulbani town, attacking churches, houses and vehicles in the presence of the police. The places of worship were desecrated, women were burnt and raped and Christian priests were subjected to inhuman torture. Christians were burnt alive. Many villagers are now hiding in the forests to save their lives. The Christian institutions have been closed down due to security reason. The law and order situation in the state is completely paralyzed. If the situation is not handled properly it may mount to an unmanageable magnitude.”  

On behalf of the Church of North India, Pradhan issued a statement late Tuesday condemning the killing of the Hindu swami and the reprisals that are being directed at Christians. “Why do the innocent Christians have to pay the price for someone else’s faults?” he asked.