ICC Note:

Survivors of India’s worst incident of persecution gathered recently to express solidarity with persecuted Christians in the Middle East. In 2008, Christians in the Kandhamal District of India’s Orissa (now know as Odisha) State were the victims of three months of riots aimed at driving Christians out of the district. As a result of the riots, over 100 Christians were killed and another 50,000 were displaced from their homes. Although the violence against Christians in Kandhamal has ceased, many remain displaced do to lingering fears that Hindu radicals continue to operate openly in Kandhamal. 

2/14/2016 India (Asia News) – The survivors of the massacres in Kandhamal in 2008 have expressed deep solidarity with the persecuted Christians in the Middle East, particularly in Syria. They empathize with “the pain and suffering of those people who are murdered, assaulted, raped, mutilated, and driven from their homes and from their places in such an unfair, cruel and barbaric manner”.

For the first time, on 9 February, those who fled the fiercest pogrom against Christians ever perpetrated in the Asian country by Hindu radicals met in Kandhamal. The meeting aimed to “build solidarity” and “allow victims share stories of hope, faith and the fight for justice.” They prayed for the Christians of Syria and appealed to Pope Francis and the international community to put an end to the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East.

In 2008, Hindu extremists set fire to the district accusing Christians of killing the guru Laxamananda Saraswati. The violence has caused 101 deaths and 75 thousand refugees.

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