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"Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong; they are the ones to attain felicity".
(surah Al-Imran,ayat-104)
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User Name: Noman
Full Name: Noman Zafar
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Nun Meena Lalita Barwa tells of brutal rape by Hindu mob in India
Jeremy Page in Delhi and Rhys Blakely in Bombay

A Roman Catholic nun who says that she was raped and paraded half-naked through the streets by a Hindu mob in eastern India emerged from hiding yesterday for the first time to make an emotional public appeal for justice.

With her head and face covered by a black scarf, Meena Lalita Barwa,
29, described how she was attacked at a prayer hall in the eastern
state of Orissa in August during the worst anti-Christian riots in
India in decades.

The violence "” which the Catholic Church says killed 60 Christians
and left 50,000 homeless "” has drawn international criticism from the
Pope and President Bush and prompted calls for a ban on India's
powerful Hindu nationalist movement.

Sister Meena said that a mob of up to 50 men armed with sticks, axes,
spades, crowbars, iron rods and sickles dragged her and a Catholic
priest from the house where they were sheltering on August 25.

One of the mob raped her, while two more held her down, and then a
fourth tried to rape her again, before they paraded the priest and
her, minus her blouse and underwear, along a road, she said.

When the crowd passed a group of a dozen policemen she begged for
help, but they ignored her and talked in a "very friendly" manner to
her attackers, she said. "State police failed to stop the crimes,
failed to protect me from the attackers," she said. "I was raped and
I don't want to be victimise[d] by the Orissa police. God Bless
India, God bless you all."

She demanded that her case be handled by the Central Bureau of
Investigation "” India's FBI "” rather than the Orissa police, who have
been criticised for their inaction during the violence.

Sister Meena went into hiding after the attack to protect herself
from Hindu extremists but decided to come forward after the Supreme
Court turned down her initial request for a CBI inquiry earlier this
week.

Her public appeal comes as pressure mounts on the Indian Government
to ban Bajrang Dal, one of India's Hindu extremist groups, for their
alleged role in violence in Orissa and elsewhere.

The Government fears that such a move would provoke a backlash from
other Hindu extremists and mobilise votes for the opposition
Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of national elections, due in May.

The accused groups deny any involvement in the Orissa violence,
saying that it was a spontaneous reaction to the murder of Swami
Lakshmananda Saraswati, a local Hindu nationalist leader, on August
23.

They blame Christians for the murder, although Maoist rebels have
claimed responsibility and accuse Christian missionaries of bribing
and coercing poor Hindus to convert.

However, victims in Orissa, church leaders and rights groups accuse
Hindu extremists of executing the attacks to stir up their supporters
ahead of next year's elections.

Father Thomas Chellan, the priest who was with Sister Meena when she
was allegedly raped, told The Times that many of the mob were
chanting Hindu slogans and were wearing the trademark saffron
bandannas of the Hindu nationalist movement.

He said that they forced him to kneel on the ground and doused him in
kerosene. One man brought out a box of matches and fumbled with
it. "I thought, my God, now I will die."

Another member of the mob interrupted and said that they should "burn
him where others could see", prompting the crowd to parade him and
Sister Meena along the road.

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A fragile country: India torn by anti-Christian violence
By Tim Sulivan

At least 32 people have been killed, tens of thousands have fled
their homes and thousands are believed still to be hiding in Orissa's
thick forests

THEY still worship in what remains of the little Baptist church not
far from this forest town. The church is empty except for the rubble
swept neatly into the corners. The sun comes through ragged holes
where the mob smashed in the window frames.

On the roof, the crucifix is just twisted metal and broken concrete.
It is barely recognizable, and you have to ask to make sure that is
what it once was.

Here, prayers are said only in secret.

"We do it without making any noise," said Subhash Digal, holding his
four-month-old son on his hip as he stood outside the church, where
the smell of burned timber lingered on a warm autumn afternoon. "We
don't want these people to know we are inside."

In this corner of the eastern state of Orissa, it's hard to find a
Christian who is not afraid.

Bloody anti-Christian riots broke out here in late August, rampages
by Hindu hard-liners that since then have left at least 38 people
dead, as many as 30,000 homeless and dozen of churches destroyed. The
worst of the violence ended after a week or so, when authorities
finally deployed soldiers to set up checkpoints and relief camps.

But nearly everyday since then, the trouble has continued: a house
burned, a carload of people beaten, a soldier hacked to death.
Repeatedly, Christian villagers say, they have been told they must
convert to Hinduism. The anti-Christian violence has also flickered
across other parts of India, with churches vandalized and Christians
attacked in the high-tech hub of Bangalore, the city of Mangalore and
the coastal state of Kerala.

In a country desperate to be seen as a stable, democratic world
power, the violence is a window into India's hidden fragility, its
sometimes-dangerous political climate and the fierce historical
divisions buried in its vast diversity.

India is more than 80 percent Hindu but its 1.1 billion people
include all of the world's major religions, a caste system of near-
impossible complexity, colossal divides of wealth and poverty, and,
by some estimates, more than 2,000 ethnic groups.

"If you look at Africa, you don't see this kind of diversity, if you
look at all of Europe, you don't see this kind of diversity," said
Swami Agnivesh, a Hindu intellectual and liberal social activist.
When it comes to India's continued existence: "Sometimes I think it's
a miracle."

Trouble can seem inevitable. In just the past couple weeks violence
has ranged from the north-eastern state of Assam, where at least 50
people have died in ethnic clashes, to the central state of Madhya
Pradesh state, where three people were killed in religious riots
after a Hindu procession passed through a Muslim neighbourhood.

Then there is Orissa's Kandhamal district, where widespread trouble
began after the Aug. 24 killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a
hard-line Hindu leader who rose to prominence in the area by
advocating that Christian converts return to Hinduism.

Police blamed Maoist guerrillas for the killing, though it's unclear
why they would have targeted him.

But Hindu militants quickly turned on local Christians, setting fire
to a Christian orphanage and attacking churches and Christian-owned
shops and homes. A nun accused a Hindu mob of raping her. At least 32
people have been killed, tens of thousands have fled their homes and
thousands are believed still to be hiding in Orissa's thick forests.

The Kandhamal region is a place where villagers tend farms in small
valleys circled by humpbacked hills, and where roadside ponds are
filled with swimming children and floating lotuses. But it's also a
place long cut off by poverty and illiteracy, where electricity is
unknown in most villages and the pay for day labourers - the only job
most people hope for- is 30 rupees, or 60 cents. That wage is only
for men: women earn 20 rupees, or 40 cents.

Kandhamal has long been a battleground over Christian missionary work
among low-caste Hindus and the indigenous people known in India
as "tribals." While Christians account for just 2.5 percent of India,
their population in Kandhamal has risen sharply in recent decades,
reaching nearly 20 percent by the last census in 2001.

Hindu militants say the reason for this is obvious: Missionaries are
forcing or bribing people to convert, stealing followers from India's
true religion.

"This is a kind of cultural invasion," Gauri Shankar Rath, a top
official in the Orissa state VHP, the umbrella organization of Hindu
nationalists, said in a telephone interview. "Our culture is being
attacked."

Missionaries dismiss such accusations. And conversion does offer
worldly benefits: For the low-caste, there's a partial escape from
the stigmas of the Hindu caste system. Some missionaries also reach
out to followers by building medical clinics and schools.

But as with much of India's violence, the obvious rationale for
Kandhamal's bloodshed is really just one tile in a mosaic of
discontent.

Much of the bitterness here is rooted in competition between two
groups struggling at the bottom of India's social spectrum: the Panas
and the Kandhas. The Panas are dalits, the group once known in India
as "untouchables, " while the Kandhas are tribals. The two have long
competed for land, and more recently for jobs and school seats
reserved by the government for the disadvantaged.

Over the past 20 years, the Kandhas have largely remained Hindu while
many Panas have converted to Christianity, tangling religion into
their conflict. Christians, even dalit converts, are not supposed to
be eligible for reserved positions, but many Kandhas insist Pana
Christian still find ways to get them. The Christians deny the
accusation.

Then there is politics: Many of the attacks, victims say, were
carried out by the Bajrang Dal, a militant group closely allied to
the Bharatiya Janata Party, a Hindu nationalist political party that
is part of Orissa's coalition government. The Hindu right-wing has
long stirred up religious resentments as a way to shore up its voter
base, and Orissa, as people here quickly point out, is expected to
hold elections early next year.

"This isn't a war between Hindus and Christians," said Ugrasena Rana,
a 32-year-old Hindu from Bujulimendi, a small village where a roaming
gang burned down a half-dozen or so Christian homes after the swami
was killed. "This is a war between the Bajrang Dal and the people who
will not follow their commands."

In some ways, though, the Christians of Bujulimendi are lucky. Their
Hindu neighbours have tried to protect them, and many Christian
families now sleep in Hindu homes in case the mobs return.

The situation is grimmer outside the ransacked Baptist church, where
villagers say their attackers included many people they knew.

That mob, about 50 people armed with knives, swords and clubs,
stormed through the village, chanting the name of the Hindu god Ram
as they destroyed the church and Christian homes.

 
 
 
Since then, smaller groups have returned repeatedly. There is seldom
violence, but they state their message bluntly: convert or die.
Eventually, villagers worry, the threat will be carried out.

"What can we do?" asked Digal, the man dangling his baby. "They are
trying to force us to become Hindu."

So will he convert?

"I don't know," he said, staring down at the ground. "I haven't
decided yet." ap

source : http://www.dailytim es.com.pk/ default.asp? page=2008% 5C10%5C27%
5Cstory_27-10- 2008_pg4_ 18
 Reply:   INDIA: Sangh Parivar wants to remove every Christian trace in Orissa
Replied by(Noman) Replied on (29/Oct/2008)
Christians are not allowed to pray even in government-run refugee camps. The ground on which homes and churches once stood are taken over and "cleansed" of every trace of violence. Hindus te
by Nirmala Carvalho

Christians are not allowed to pray even in government-run refugee camps. The ground on which homes and churches once stood are taken over and "cleansed" of every trace of violence. Hindus tell raped nun to marry her rapist. The hue and cry is still on for Christians.

Bhubaneshwar (AsiaNews) "“ The Hindu fundamentalist groups that have
been involved for more than a month in Orissa's anti-Christian pogrom
are becoming more methodical. Sometimes with police assistance they
prevent Christians from meeting to pray, try to murder new converts,
and are trying to take over the land where churches and Christian
homes once stood in order to wipe off the face of the earth any trace
of Christian presence. Whilst Indian public opinion is shocked by the
violence, especially by the rape of a nun, Hindu radicals want to
reintroduce a tribal law that would have the rape victim marry her
rapist.
The destruction of 180 churches and 4,500 homes, burnt and razed to
the ground, and the 50,000 refugees this has generated are but the
first chapter in a programme whose ultimate goal is to do away with
Christianity in this state from the roots up. Christians are treated
like criminals even in refugee camps set up by the government for
those who fled their homes.

After visiting three such camps, Fr Ajay Singh, director of Jan
Vikas, a centre for social action run by the diocese of Cuttack-
Bhubaneshwar, told AsiaNews that "our people are being treated like
animals. They have been given just one blanket per family and
sanitation and hygiene are simply non-existent. But what is even more
tragic is the fact that they are not even allowed to pray, and are
instead closely monitored by security forces. Women are particularly
vulnerable"”they are not allowed to get any counselling so that their
emotional health is deteriorating rapidly."

Outside, in the villages already destroyed by the Hindu
fundamentalist fury, things are not getting any better. According to
eyewitness accounts collected by the Global Council of Indian
Christians (GCIC), the Sangh Parivar (an umbrella organisation of
Hindu extremist groups) has began "cleansing" the land where
Christians had their homes and churches, torched to the ground in the
past weeks.

They are even pulling out the bricks from foundations, filling up
holes in the ground, removing marks indicating demarcation lines of
fields owned by Christians so as to divide them up among themselves.

"Their goal is to use fraudulent means to take over Christian
property," said GCIC Chairman Sajan K George, "showing that there was
no Christian presence, no Christian house, no Christian church. I am
concerned that they might start building Hindu temples on land where
Christian homes and churches once stood."

For him behind this purge there might be another motive. "Hindu
radicals want to hide from public opinion the evidence of their
brutality against innocent people now that Indians have seen what
their attacks have done."

Indian newspapers are in fact full of stories describing the tragic
events, especially Hindu violence against women, with the rape of a
nun as the lowest point.

In response to public criticism for its inaction in this case, Orissa
state authorities have held three Hindu activists, Mitu Patnaik,
Saroj Ghadai and Munna Ghadai, who were arrested in Kerala a month
after the fact. All three are from Baliguda (Orissa).

In view of the gravity of the situation Hindu fundamentalist
publications and organisations have launched a campaign to play down
the facts.

Lal Krishna Advani, leader of the fundamentalist- friendly Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP), condemned the rape as a "shameful crime" but
other related groups like the Bajrang Dal are raising doubts, saying
that the he nun might have been "consenting" .

Last Monday also saw five thousand radical Hindu women demonstrate in
K Nuagaon demanding that "the victim marry her rapist in accordance
with local tradition."

As if this was not enough the anti-Christian campaign has opened a
new chapter in its attempt to stop conversions to Christianity,
forcing instead new converts to re-convert to Hinduism by threats of
violence

Last Sunday a student association, the Kandhamal Chatra Sangharsa
Samiti, called for a moratorium on conversions by Christian NGOs to
honour the late Swami Laxamananda Saraswati whose lifetime work (for
45 years) was to stop Christian conversions.

It was his murder by a Maoist group that unleashed the anti-Christian
rage because Hindu fundamentalists blamed Christians for his death.

As part of this campaign Hindu fanatics in Kandhamal district have
prepared a reconvert-or- die list that includes people like Pabitra
Mohan Katta, a man from Adigar village. Ten years ago Pabitra was a
follower of Swami Laxamananda and a member of the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (VHP) before he became a Christian. On 26 August his home
was set on fire but he managed to get out unscathed thanks to his
Hindu brother's intervention. A few days later his brother's home was
however torched as well.

Meanwhile some Christians are "reconverting" (see photo) to Hinduism,
forced to burn Bibles and prayer books, have their heads shaved,
coerced into drinking cow urine (to purify them), placed for days
under the watchful eye of Hindu groups so that they do not have any
contacts with their former co-religionists.

http://www.asianews .it/index. php?l=en& art=13497& size=A

 
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