GCIC and FIACONA demands special probe into Orissa violence

The Global Council of Indian Christians and the Federation of Indian Christian Organisations of North America (FIACONA) urged the National Human Rights Commission to institute a special probe into the killing of a Hindu leader and the unabated communal violence in the state.

Asserting that over 100 Christians may have died and 100,000 displaced since August 24, the murder of VHP leader Swami Laxmanananda, the Christian groups submitted a memorandum to the NHRC stating their demand.

“There seems to be a larger conspiracy behind the attack on Christians and that needs to be investigated,” said GCIC president Sajan K. George.

“All Christian organisations have condemned the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in Orissa’s Kandhamal district but we are totally dismayed at the ongoing attacks on Christians, their houses and institutions that continue unabated in Orissa and other parts of the country,” George told IANS.

George further pointed that apart from Orissa, states like Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, New Delhi, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand have witnessed violence.

“We have requested the NHRC chairperson Justice S. Rajendra Babu to form a special investigation team to probe all these incidents of violence,” he said.

According to the GCIC, 95 cases of violence against Christians took place this year in Karnataka; of these, 72 incidents occurred after the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government came to power in June.