ICC Note:
Christians across India are remembering the work and murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines. Pastor Staines worked with those suffering from leprosy in Orissa, now know as Odisha. In 1999, Hindu radicals attacked and killed Pastor Staines and his two young sons by burning them alive. For many, this shocking attack was just a prelude to the violence that would be unleashed against Christians in Odisha in 2008. Will remembering Pastor Staines and his sacrifice help Christians in India continue to endure persecution? 
01/23/2017 India (Asia News) – Today the Indian Church remembers the murder of the Australian missionary Graham Staines, killed by Hindu radicals in 1999 along with his two youngest children. John Dayal, a Catholic activist and journalist, said, “We commemorate the death of the missionary who worked for leprosy patients in Orissa. That was the time when Western countries discovered for the first time the suffering inflicted on Christians in India by extremist groups that support the Hindutva, gathered under the Sangh Parivar.”
On the night between 22 and 23 January 1999, Hindu extremists burned Pastor Staines and his sons Philip and Timothy, ages 9 and 7, alive while they were asleep in their station wagon in Manoharpur village, located in the District of Keonjhar, Orissa. In 2006 his widow Gladys returned to live in the Indian state, along with their surviving daughter Esther, to continue her husband’s commitment to those suffering from leprosy.
The brutal murder of the Australian missionary was the prelude of the violence against Christians in Orissa triggered in 2008 by Hindu fundamentalists. John Dayal said that in that period, “The Sangh targeted Christians once again, especially in Kandhamal district.”
The violence lasted for four months and the toll was dramatic. Nearly 100 dead, killed for refusing to recant and for whom the process of canonization has been opened. 6,500 homes destroyed and about 395 churches and places of worship damaged or demolished. In the end, more than 56,000 people were forced to flee.
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