CHRISTIAN ASSAULTED IN ORISSA STATE

INDIA

September 9 MPBS247 REPORT From CDC – Suspected Hindu nationalists in an area of Orissa state still tense from 2008 anti-Christian violence beat a Catholic father of seven until he fell unconscious on Aug. 20, the 47-year-old victim said. Subhash Nayak told Compass that four unidentified men assaulted him as he made his way home to Laburi village from the hamlet of Kapingia in Kandhamal district. Hindu extremists in Kandhamal district killed more than 100 people in several weeks of attacks following the Aug. 23, 2008 murder of Hindu extremist leader Swami Laxamananda Saraswati. Area church leader Biswajit Pani of Khurda told Compass that villagers in Laburi have planned to attack at least one Christian around that date every year. Pani and another area Christian, retired school teacher Tarsish Nayak, said they also had heard Hindu nationalists spreading this message. Nayak said the assailants left him for dead. Asserting that no one had any personal enmity toward him, Nayak said that Hindu extremists in Kandhamal district have been telling people, “We destroyed and burned their houses and churches, which they have rebuilt, but now we will attack their lives, which they cannot rebuild.” Nayak recalled that a year ago, while returning to his village at night around the anniversary of Saraswati’s murder, he heard someone whispering, “Here he comes … He is coming near,” at which point he fled. “There were people hiding, seeking to attack me,” he said.