Saturday, August 30, 2008
FR. THOMAS CHELLEN DESCRIBES THE ORISSA MOB ORDEAL
Fr. Thomas Chellen, director of the pastoral center that was destroyed with a bomb, had a narrow escape after a Hindu mob nearly set him on fire. Currently undergoing treatment at a Catholic hospital in Orissa’s capital Bhubaneswar, Fr. Chellen had this horrifying experience to share with Catholic News Service:
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“They had poured kerosene on my head, and one held a matchbox in his hands to light the fire. But thanks to divine providence, in the end, they did not do that. Otherwise, I would not have been there to tell this horror,” the 55-year-old priest, director of the pastoral center at Konjamendi in the Indian state of Orissa, told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview from his hospital bed Aug. 28.**When a Hindu mob of 500 people broke into the pastoral center around noon Aug. 24, Father Chellen said he fled through the backyard with another priest and a nun.
“It was heartbreaking for us to watch from a distance the entire complex go up in smoke,” said Father Chellen, who had supervised the construction of the center that opened in 2001 and could accommodate 200 people.
“They vandalized everything and set it on fire. It has been reduced to ashes,” he added.
As the three watched from a distance, some other priests told them to flee.
“We fled to the jungles and came in the night to take shelter in the house of a Hindu friend and spent the night there,” Father Chellen said, adding that the second priest left them to join other priests.
The following morning, he said, the Hindu family moved the priest and nun to an adjacent vacant house and locked it to give the impression that no one was inside.
However, the Hindu mobs overheard the priest speaking on his cell phone, broke into the room and dragged him and the nun outside.**
“They began our crucifixion parade,” said Father Chellen. The gang of about 50 armed Hindus “beat us up and led us like culprits along the road” to the burned pastoral center.
“There they tore my shirt and started pulling off the clothes of the nun. When I protested, they beat me hard with iron rods. Later, they took the sister inside (and) raped her while they went on kicking and teasing me, forcing (me) to say vulgar words,” said the priest who has cuts, bruises and swollen tissue all over his body and stitches on his face.
“Later both of us, half-naked, were taken to the street, and they ordered me to have sex with the nun in public, saying nuns and priests do it. As I refused, they went on beating me and dragged us to the nearby government office. Sadly, a dozen policemen were watching all this,” he said.
Angry at his plea to the police for help, the mob beat the bleeding priest again.
Later, a government official and members of the mob took the priest and the nun to the police station, where Father Chellen said he was kicked in the face.**
“The four-hour ordeal ended when a senior police officer arrived in the evening,” said Father Chellen.
The priest said one of the most hurtful things about the incident was that some local Hindus whom he knew were watching the events and ignored his requests for help.
Monday, September 1, 2008
1 MORE BURNT ALIVE, 18 CONVERTED TO HINDUISM
Anti-Christian Pogrom Continues in Orissa!!
Another Christian Burnt Alive; 18 Forcibly Converted to Hinduism
More than a week after the worst form of anti-Christian violence hit the state, we’re still receiving fresh news of killings, forcible re-conversions (to Hinduism) and destruction. To call the ongoing Orissa episodes as a “national shame” would be a massive understatement of the State’s failure.
Merinews reports last night’s burning:
One Abhimanyu Nayak, a resident of Barapalh village under Pasara police station of Kandhamal district in Orissa, was burnt alive on Sunday night (August 31) and 18 families of one community were forcibly converted at Raikia on Friday (August 29), by fanatic organisations in presence of police and government officials though the curfew was still in force.
FRESH VIOLENCE: AT LEAST 4 MORE CHURCHES BURNT
At Least Four More Churches Burnt as Violence Continues to Spread in Orissa
SITUATION UNDER WHOSE CONTROL?
Even as officials claim the situation to be “under control”, violence continues to spread in Orissa. Reuters reports:
"Hindu mobs have burnt at least four more churches in Orissa, officials said on Monday, as religious violence appeared to spread.
Thousands of people, mostly Christians, have taken shelter in makeshift camps, where Hindu mobs went on the rampage last week after a Hindu leader was killed.
Last week officials said the violence appeared to be abating after Hindu and Christian leaders called for calm, but over the weekend it spread to new parts of the state.
Mobs set fire to four churches in the districts of Koraput and Rayagada, Orissa’s Director General of Police, Gopal Chandra Nanda, told Reuters.
Two churches and several houses were also burnt in the Kandhamal district, the epicentre of the tension, despite a curfew imposed in most of its towns, one of the state’s leading newspapers, The Samaja, reported on Monday."
According to the Times of India:
"Media reports said six churches and some houses had been burnt in Boriguma area of Koraput district and in some places in Rayagada district on Sunday.
Director General of Police Gopal Chandra Nanda, however, said “only three or four churches had been set on fire”.
Fresh violence was also reported from the troubled district of Kandhamal where mobs set fire to some churches and houses on Sunday evening. The incidents occurred in Bataguda and Parampanga area."
courtesy
orissaburning.blogspot.com