By IANS
New Delhi : The recent communal violence in Orissa’s Kandhamal district was an “unprecedented” attack on the Christian community in India, says a rights group in its fact-finding report.
“We are saddened to acknowledge that the violence in Orissa, which left at least four killed and 730 houses and 95 churches burnt, will go into the history books as an unprecedented attack on Christians in India,” said Joseph D’Souza, president of the All India Christian Council (AICC).
“The tragedy is deepened by the fact that the violence was avoidable if the authorities had enforced the rule of law,” D’Souza told IANS.
The state chapter of the AICC visited affected villages in Kandhamal Jan 3-5 to ascertain the damage done.
In its fact-finding report, the Christian rights group noted that cadres of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had attacked members of the minority community using guns, knives, trishuls or tridents, bombs and other weapons.
“Many of them had a yellow ribbon on their heads and vermilion on their foreheads,” said the AICC report.
The AICC accused the state police of bias and inaction. “In all the villages we have visited, people testify that the attacks, destruction and looting was done in the presence of the police.”
The rights group also alleged a “conspiracy to hide the bodies of Christians killed by VHP cadre to destroy evidence”, indicating that the death toll could be much higher. “Many are missing – both adults and children – in every village.”
The worst hit area was Barakhama village, about 12 km from Baliguda town, where 415 of the 450 houses belonging to tribal Christians were burnt down, and six of the seven churches were vandalised, said the report.
The AICC also said that a church in Barakhama was turned into a Hindu cremation ground.
“On that day (Dec 24), an old Hindu person had died naturally. To desecrate the place of worship of Christians, the VHP cadre brought the body and cremated it right in front of the pulpit (of a church that was celebrating Christmas Eve). The ashes of the body remain there until today (Jan 5). We have a photograph,” the report pointed out.
Describing how the first killing of a Christian took place, the report said 50-year-old Bhogra Naik from Barakhama was “cut into three pieces” after his house was destroyed.
The report said Brahmani was another village that bore the brunt of the violence. Talking about an attack there, it said VHP cadre took away a goat from a Christian family, butchered it and used the blood as vermilion for their foreheads. Then, “shouting slogans like ‘Jai Bajarangbali’ and ‘Jai Shriram’, they started attacking and looting Christian houses”.
It said all the men in this village went into hiding in a nearby forest to save their lives, adding that they licked the dew on the leaves of plants and trees to quench their thirst in the forest.
Narrating another incident, the report said miscreants forcibly tonsured and “reconverted” to Hinduism 12 Christian families and their pastor, Kalia Mani Digal, in Kutikia area in Baliguda. “Later, all of them were told to eat raw rice mixed with goat blood to become Hindus.”
The report concluded that the violence was pre-planned given its simultaneous eruptions across the district within hours of the first incident, and the fact that it could be sustained for more than a week despite the presence of the police.
The violence began Dec 24. As the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Brahmani village was pitching a tent for Christmas celebrations, a mob allegedly led by cadres of the VHP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) launched a fierce attack on Christians and their shops to protest the Christmas celebrations they had planned.
There were also reports of sections of Christians indulging in vandalism in the violence that followed.