Here is an official news regarding the Orissa killing

[Partha Banerjee]

I am posting this news here in response to recent queries made in this list.

Note: Asterisks used in the article are mine. -PB

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Missionary, sons set afire




BHUBANESWAR, Jan 23: The campaign against Christians,
so far largely limited to Gujarat, took an ominous turn
with an Australian missionary and his two sons being
torched to death in Keonjhar district early this
morning.

Based in Baripada since 1965, Graham Stewart Staines,
58, ran a leprosy hospital and was the secretary and
treasurer of the Evangelical Missionaries Society in
Mayurbhanj. Staines was sleeping in his jeep with his
two sons, nine-year-old Philip and seven-year-old
Timothy, when a group of 100 people allegedly poured
petrol and set the vehicle ablaze. The incident
occurred in Manoharpur under the Anandpur police
station.

According to reports from Baripada, another Australian,
Gilbert Venge, and a lecturer, Rajendra Swain, who
accompanied Steins to Manoharpur, escaped as they were
sleeping inside the village church. The attackers
spared the church.

***
Subhas Chouhan, convenor of the state unit of Hindu
Jagaran Samukhya, alleged that Staines was killed
because he was ``proselytising.'' Sayingthat people may
have killed him in a ``fit of rage,'' Chouhan said that
the issue should not be communalised.
***

(Note: Hindu Jagaran and other such outfits are offshoots of RSS/VHP.
Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of VHP. -- PB).

Janata Dal president Ashok Das has blamed the Bajrang
Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad for the incident. He
also criticised prime minister A B Vajpayee for giving
a call for a national debate on conversions.

The incident has sent shockwaves through the Government
and the Congress party. While no official word came
from either, both the Home Ministry and the Congress
high command are keeping a close tab.

Home Ministry sources said a report from the Orissa
Government would be sought. Vajpayee has also been
alerted about the incident. Meanwhile, Australian High
Commission officials told The Indian Express in New
Delhi that they were still awaiting details. A consular
official is planning to fly to Calcutta en route to
Orissa tomorrow while the High Commissioner has spoken
to Home Secretary B P Singh about the incident.

This is the second incident within the last two months
when Christians have been killed in Orissa. Two
undertrial prisoners, both Christian, were dragged out
from prison by a tribal mob and burnt to death in front
of the police at R. Udaygiri on December 8. Besides,
111 houses belonging to the community were also burnt
to ashes. Sources said some villagers tried to prevent
the mob from setting Staines's jeep ablaze but were
chased away. It was regular for Staines to spend the
night in the jeep whenever he was on tour, sources
said. Staines, described by local residents as
``popular and affable'' was well known for his charity
work. He had gone to Monaharpur yesterday afternoon to
attend a camp organised by the local church. He is
survived by his wife Glades and daughter Easter, 13,
both of whom were at Baripada.

Glades said she was ``greatly shocked but not angry.''
She is believed to have told the Australian High
Commission that she and her daughter ``are not stranded
in Baripada and the locals are sympathetic.'' The
funeral is scheduled for tomorrow.


Prayer halls attacked

A group of about 25 persons attacked two prayer halls
in tribal-dominated Doswada village under Songadh rural
police station in Surat on Friday evening.

According to the police, the miscreants destroyed
furniture, musical instruments and walls of the prayer
halls managed by the governing bodies of the Indian
National Gospel Churches Federation and Good News
Ministries Churches of Northern India for the last one
decade.