Living
the nightmare
A first-person account of the anti-Christian attacks in Kandhamal: Father
Thomas Chellan stresses the need for central command in Orissa
BY ANGANA CHATTERJI
He is a man in his fifties who has been serving as director at
the Dibyajyoti Pastoral Centre at Kanjamendi in the Kandhamal district of Orissa
for the past seven years. He oversaw the pastoral centre with care. The gardens
bore fruit and flowers. Today most of the trees have in all likelihood been
uprooted, slashed or burnt.
Today he is in convalescence, recovering from a series of brutal
attacks by a mob, attacks that were ably aided and abetted by the Orissa State
Armed Police (OSAP) who stood watching, attacks moreover that lasted for a
period of 72 hours from 4.30 p.m. on August 24 to 2 a.m. on August 26. To flee
the mob Fr Chellan and two colleagues spent a few hours hiding in a nearby
forest before they were attacked and humiliated again. He spoke to Teesta
Setalvad at a hospital where he is recovering from his injuries.
Even as we speak, the breakdown in the administration continues.
Yesterday and today hundreds of poor, tribal Christians are being forced,
through threats of violence, to sign false affidavits by paid hirelings of the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal to say they were forced through
false inducements to convert to Christianity. With all of us, priests and nuns,
having to flee due to the failure of the Orissa administration to protect us,
these defenceless persons are being coerced into making false statements.
Normalcy will only return if these three districts are kept permanently under
central command and CRP (Central Reserve Police) posts are positioned in several
places. The poor of Kandhamal, Phulbani and Gajapati districts have completely
lost faith in the state government. In addition, the cadres of these
organisations are being fed false propaganda about Christians and missionary
activity.
The sequence of events
Several men of the OSAP were camping at the UGCC school in front
of the pastoral centre where I have served for the past seven years. The OSAP
camp had been there for a month after an earlier incident of alleged cow
slaughter at Tumbudibandha. Apprehending trouble the moment news of the gruesome
killing of Swami Saraswati appeared on television, we approached the OSAP for
protection. They assured us that ‘there was nothing to worry’.
But the attack did take place…
At around 4.30 p.m. on August 24, when despite this assurance a
huge crowd arrived at the gate of the pastoral centre shouting slogans, my
companion priest, the sister and I ran for our lives, jumping over the boundary
wall at the rear of the property. We could hear sounds of the centre being
vandalised, breaking glass, and then in a short while saw smoke and flames.
Fearing for our lives, we spent a few hours in a nearby forest before we took
shelter in the house of Prahlad Pradhan of K. Nuagaon.
And continued…
The next morning I could see a crowd of people from my room,
breaking down a small church. Sensing danger, Prahlad shifted me to an outhouse
and locked me in. At around 1.30 p.m. a group of 40-50 persons came, broke down
the door and pulled me out of that room. Sister Meena, whom they had already got
hold of, had been hauled into the midst of the mob. They started hitting me all
over and forcibly removed my shirt and banyan. "Why did you kill the swamiji?
How much money have you given to the killers? What meetings are you conducting
at the pastoral centre?"
They dragged us to the Jana Vikash building on the other side of
the road. They were armed with lathis, axes, spades, crowbars, iron rods,
sickles, etc. They continued their assault inside the building. They tore off
the sister’s blouse and began assaulting her. When I objected they hit me with
an iron rod on my right shoulder, pulled me out, poured kerosene all over me and
pulled out a box of matches. They were debating how and where to burn us, some
suggesting we should be burnt alive in the middle of the road. I was made to
kneel down on the road. The sister was brought out and some persons were
searching for a rope with which to tie us up before setting us alight. Then they
decided to parade us in that state for half a kilometre up to Nuagaon. We walked
with folded hands as they kept up the assault, attempting to pull off the rest
of our clothes.
As we neared Nuagaon, a dozen or so men of the OSAP stood by as
the assault continued. I pleaded, "Sir, please help us." We suffered greater
blows for attempting to get help. The police were silent onlookers. I was kicked
in the face, where I have been stitched up now. A nearby shopkeeper was
collecting discarded tyres on which to burn us.
Then suddenly some people in the crowd asked us to go to the K.
Nuagaon block building and one of the officers there took us to the police
outpost. There I was given some first aid and at around 9.30 p.m. the inspector
in-charge and his team took us to Balliguda. Throughout our wait at the outpost
one of the mobsters was inside, watching our exchanges with the police.
At Balliguda we were provided accommodation at the inspection
bungalow. The next morning when we were taken to the Balliguda police station
the inspector who was making arrangements to send us to Bhubaneswar (about 280
kilometres of difficult terrain away from Nuagaon) asked us whether we were
‘really interested’ in registering a first information report (FIR)!
We lodged three separate FIRs but we still have to be given
copies of these. The FIRs relate to the attack on Dibyajyoti, the attack on me
and the assault of Sr Meena. The police dropped us off at Nayagarh and we
reached Bhubaneswar in a private vehicle at 2 a.m. on August 27.
Postscript: The attack on poor, tribal Christians and
Christian institutions in Orissa is an outcome of the sangh parivar’s view of
the world, using intimidation, mob frenzy and violence. The excuse this time is
that the violence was ‘retaliatory’ (in law this is not justified) when all
indicators are that the assassins of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati had nothing
to do with the innocents killed and brutalised ‘in revenge’. Since Sunday,
August 24, the day after Saraswati was killed, reportedly by Maoists (who have
even claimed credit for the murder), over 40 innocent Christians have been
killed, many burnt alive, about 13,000 persons live in several relief camps and
4,000 homes have been destroyed. A majority of priests and nuns in the area are
locals.
No political leaders were allowed entry into the disturbed
areas, not even the union minister of state for home, Sriprakash Jaiswal. Only
the chief minister, Naveen Patnaik, visited and his administration also allowed
the international general secretary of the VHP, Praveen Togadia, into the
ravaged districts, who added fuel to the flames by making more inciteful
speeches. In the past (2003-2004) Togadia has been jailed by the Rajasthan
government and also banned from entry into a district in Karnataka when the
district magistrate felt that his entry would do more harm than good. Serious
questions on the role of the state, its administration and police in failing to
protect life and property and being agents if not provocateurs in mob violence,
remain unanswered.
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