India Gov't to Pull Out Security Forces Protecting Christians
Starting next month, there will be no paramilitary forces guarding Christians who are living in relief camps in India's communally sensitive Kandhamal district.
Starting next month, there will be no paramilitary forces guarding Christians who are living in relief camps in India's communally sensitive Kandhamal district.
In its 2009 report, Amnesty International has strongly criticized the Indian government for violence against Christians in the Indian states of Orissa and Karnataka. Amnesty's 400-page report comes just weeks after the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom announced its plans to visit India in June.
An organization that represents Christian religious broadcasters on television and radio in America plans to help raise money to rebuild the houses of victims of the Orissa, India violence.
The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India is confident that the Congress-led UPA government will keep the communal forces at bay and restore confidence among religious minorities.
"The situation here is very tense," says a pastor in the northern India state of Jammu and Kashmir, who claims that the highest police officials of Jammu arrested him and harassed him for conducting Bible classes for the locals.
A relief camp in Kandhamal, Orissa, India was attacked Monday night by Hindu radicals, reported a leading Christian advocacy group in the country.
Operation Mobilization has launched an initiative called "Help Feed a Child in India" to provide aid to over 15,000 children, mostly of whom are Dalits or "untouchables."
The second and final phase of elections in Orissa began on Thursday amid tight security in the backdrop of political and communal violence.
Speaking to a group of persecuted Christians, mostly widows of martyrs from the recent anti-Christian violence, former Archbishop Ignatius Pinto of Bangalore urged believers in India to look to the cross for comfort and inspiration.
The Supreme Court declined on Monday to give any direction to the Orissa, India, government regarding the alleged forceful closure of relief camps in violence-stricken Kandhamal district.