Conger

Kashmir peace plea from the Church of North India: The Church of England Newspaper, July 9, 2010 p 6. July 15, 2010

Bishop Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy of Amritsar

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The Bishop in Amritsar has written to supporters in the West urging prayer for the people of Kashmir following weeks of anti-government rioting that have left over a dozen dead.

Bishop Pradeep Kumar Samantaroy writes that the situation in the disputed Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is grim.

A spokesman for the diocese’s John Bishop Memorial Hospital in Anantnag, the state’s second largest city, reports “the whole of Kashmir is burning. On 29th June two people were killed and two shops, buses, petrol stations were burnt. The situation here has become very serious. Non Kashmiri people have started leaving the valley.”

In Anantnag, hundreds of Muslims defied a police curfew to protest Indian rule over the disputed state, while in Srinagar a dusk to dawn curfew is being enforced by paramilitary police.  A general strike has been called by Muslim separatists, closing shops and businesses across the Kashmir valley.

The state’s chief minister Omar Abdullah on June 25 urged calm.  “We must work together to find a solution which can lead to lasting peace in Kashmir as per the aspirations of the people.”

At Independence in 1947 the majority Muslim state’s ruler opted to join India, prompting an invasion by Pakistani backed Pathan tribesmen.  The ensuing war left the state divided, with the sparsely populated north and west in Pakistani hands, the northeast under Chinese control and the Kashmir valley and neighboring Ladakh under Indian suzerainty .  Tens of thousands of Kashmiris have died in the decades old insurgency that has led to two wars between India and Pakistan.

The tempo of protests and violence has increased in recent weeks, the diocese reports.  Indian government officials have blamed Pakistan for the unrest, saying its government is supporting the rebels’ bid to destabilize the state.

The valley’s minority Christians have come under the crossfire of both Muslim and Hindu extremists.  “Please pray that people, the mob should not turn against us or against our hospital,” the diocese writes.

Church call for government action on Maoist terror in India: The Church of England Newspaper, June 4, 2010 p 6. June 15, 2010

Naxalite guerrillas

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

Church leaders in India have condemned last week’s terrorist attack on a Calcutta to Bombay express train that has left 148 dead.

On May 28 at 0130 hours, Maoist guerrillas derailed the Bombay bound Gyaneswari Express. Railway officials initially reported a bomb had been detonated under the tracks, but subsequent press reports state that a 1.5-foot section of track was missing. Railway spokesman Soumitra Majumdar said five coaches of the eastbound night train to Calcutta train jumped the track and were crushed by an on-coming goods train on the westbound track.

There were 13 carriages – including 10 sleeper coaches and a second-class coach – on the express, the Times of India reported.

Police have confirmed that 148 have died, approximately 150 are in hospital and 25 people are missing in the attack in the West Midnapore district of West Bengal, some 80 miles from Calcutta. Posters found near the scene, point to a guerrilla attack, government officials have reported.

The Rev Asir Ebenezer, general secretary of the National Council of Churches in India, urged the government to act. “In the last few weeks the country has seen a spate of unabated violence and bloodshed,” he said.

“While the leaders of the Maoist outfits and the state battle it out, the people bear the brunt of the attacks from both sides,” he said.

“We express our condolences for those who are killed. One should understand that by killing people nobody can achieve their goal,” the Rev Enos Das Pradhan, general secretary of the Church of North India, told UCA news, urging the government to safeguard civilians and restore order.

However, Maoist leaders have denied responsibility for the attack, telling the BBC they were not responsible for the derailment.

The Maoist or Naxalite uprising began in 1967 in the West Bengal village of Naxalbari. While the original peasant rising was crushed by police, the Maoist-inspired rebellion has spread across rural and jungle areas of Central and Eastern India’s Jharkand, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh states, creating a “red corridor” controlled by the insurgents.

Over 6,000 people have died in the fighting over the past 45 years. Friday’s attack saw the single highest day’s death toll in the low-level war, topping the April 2010 ambush of a police patrol that killed 76 in the dense jungle of Central India’s Chhattisgarh state, and a 2007 attack on a police barracks that killed 55.

Naxalite leader Koteshwar Rao is believed to field a force of 10,000 to 20,000 guerrillas and they faced off against 50,000 federal paramilitary troops and tens of thousands of local policemen.

In 2008 the government conceded that the Naxalite rebellion was growing. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stated the Maoists were “targeting all aspects of economic activity, [including] vital infrastructure so as to cripple transport and logistical capabilities and slow down any development. [India] cannot rest in peace until we have eliminated this virus,” he said.

The longevity of the rebellion, analysts note, lies in the support given to the guerrillas by India’s rural poor and hill tribesmen. The Maoists have pledged to over throw India’s semi-feudal land holding system, giving the poor control of land owned by absentee landlords.

Mr Ebenezer of the National Council of Churches urged the government to address the root causes of the rebellion and address the “issues and contexts that give rise to these conflicts.” Only by cutting off the oxygen of peasant support could the rebellion be put down, he said.

Church leaders divided over death penalty for convicted Bombay terrorist: The Church of England Newspaper, May 14, 2010 p 7. May 21, 2010

Mohammad Ajmal Kasab entering the Bombay CST station on Nov 26, 2008

First published in The Church of England Newspaper.

The death sentence handed down to the lone surviving gunman from the November 2008 Bombay massacre has divided church leaders in India.

Anglican leaders have applauded the May 6 decision by Judge ML Tahiliyani that Mohammad Ajmal Kasab be hanged for his part in the terror attack on the city, while Catholic leaders have urged the court to sentence him to life in prison.

On Nov 26, 2008 Kasab and nine other gunmen launched a commando-style raid upon Bombay, killing at least 173 people and wounding over 300 over the course of three days. The 22-year-old Pakistani national was the lone gunman to survive the attack and was captured by the police on the first day of the assault.

On May 3 Judge Tahiliyani found Kasab guilty of multiple counts of murder and terrorism after a two-week trail.  Kasab was captured on video surveillance cameras killing 50 people at Bombay’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) railway station.  During the trial, Indian television broadcast film footage presented by the prosecution of Kasab grinning as he fired an AK47 assault rifle into the packed train station.

Kasab had engaged in an act of “exceptional depravity” where “children were killed, women were killed,” the judge said.  The railway station attack was the single bloodiest episode in the 60-hour siege that saw attacks on two hotels, a Jewish prayer centre and a backpacker’s bar.

Kasab “should be hanged by the neck until dead,” Judge Tahaliyani ruled, as punishment for murder; abetting and conspiracy to murder; waging war against the State; and violating India’s unlawful activities laws.

Judge Tahaliyani dismissed the defence’s claim that Kasab has been brainwashed by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist group that planned the attack.  The defendant “voluntarily offered himself as a Mujahidin,” the judge said, and must suffer the consequences of his actions.

The General Secretary of the Church of North India, the Rev Enos Das Pradhan said: “We welcome the judgment. It is a message to everybody that the rule of law prevails.”

Without deterrence, there “will be no discipline, no rule of law,” he said.

However, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Indian Bishops’ Commission for Justice Peace and Development, Capuchin Fr Nithiya Sagayam said the Roman Catholic Church was opposed to the death penalty.

Rather than be hanged, Kasab should “be guided and improved,” Fr Sagayam told the UCAN news agency.  “Capital punishment does not solve any problem. It will only make things worse,” and will not stop terrorism, he said.

However, SM Krishna, India’s Foreign Minister, said: “The sentence sends out a message to those who want to wage war against India,” while Home Minister P Chidambaram said the “judgment itself is a message to Pakistan that they should not export terrorism to India”.

Kasab’s sentence automatically goes to India’s Supreme Court for review.   If his sentence is upheld, he may petition the Indian president to grant him clemency.

Anglican leaders unite to denounce Mumbai attacks: CEN 12.05.08 p 5. December 8, 2008

Anglican leaders in the UK have denounced the terror killings by Islamist militants of almost 200 people in Mumbai as a moral “evil.” The Archbishops of Canterbury, Armagh, Dublin and the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church joined church leaders in India and across the world in condemning last weekend’s attacks in Mumbai and pledging their prayers and support for India.

On the first day of the terrorist attack, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams wrote India’s High Commissioner in London, Shiv Shankar Mukherjee expressing his shock at the “appalling atrocities in Mumbai.”

He told Mr. Mukherjee the prayers of the members of the Anglican Communion were with the people of India. “People everywhere”, Dr. Williams said, “stand in solidarity with the innocent and in condemnation of those who would destroy innocent lives out of evil and misguided motives.”

The Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, Dr Alan Harper and Dr. John Neill on Nov 28 released a statement saying the attacks were “deeply shocking … morally indefensible and represent unquestionable evil.”

“Our hearts go out to all innocent people from all nations and faiths caught up in the carnage whilst going about their daily lives,” they said.

Writing from Glasgow the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Dr. Idris Jones said his prayers were with all those “affected by the appalling violence and terror in Mumbai – for those who are injured and for the families of those whose lives have been lost.”

He also prayed for the leaders of the West and the Indian government to find the “courage and wisdom” that would “bring an end to this terror.”

The Irish primates applauded the Indian government’s measured response. “The Indian authorities have been faced with unprecedented brutality and are to be commended for their attempts to respond in defense of the victims and to uphold the rule of law in one of the world’s greatest democracies,” they said.

The General Secretary of the Church of North India, the Rev. Enos Das Pradhan, denounced the targeting of foreigners in the terror attacks. “It is a national shame that tourists from other countries, who, having been fascinated by the rich heritage and cultures of India, visit our beautiful and diversified country, have been targeted.”

He appealed for all churches “to pray for peace and reconciliation”-a call echoed by Pope Benedict XVI and faith leaders from around the world.

Indian church leaders call for action on religious extremists: CEN 12.04.08 December 4, 2008

The standing committee of the Church of North India (CNI) has called upon the Indian union government to crack down on religious extremists seeking to overturn India’s secular democracy. Writing in the wake of the Mumbai massacres that left almost 200 dead in three days of fighting the church’s General Secretary the Rev Enos Das Pradhan said the CNI “strongly condemns the shootouts and appeals to the churches and religious communities to pray for peace and reconciliation.” Read it all in The Church of England Newspaper.

Anglican leaders pray for Mumbai victims: CEN 12.02.08 December 2, 2008

First published in The Church of England Newspaper. Anglican leaders in Britain have applauded the Indian government’s measured response to the terror attacks in Mumbai. The Archbishops of Canterbury, Armagh, Dublin and the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church last week added their voices to the chorus denouncing the killing of almost 200 people. Church leaders in India and across the world have condemned the violence, while church schools and institutions in Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and other urban areas have tightened security in fear of further violence.

India’s Christians have been caught between fanatical Islam — which sees native Christians as agents of the “crusader” forces of the West, while Hindu militants — who have driven tens of thousands of Christians from their homes in Eastern India’s Orissa state — view Christianity as an “un-Indian” faith and have mounted a campaign to stop its spread and stamp out its influence in the country.

St Thomas Cathedral in Bombay held the first of a score of funerals on Saturday for victims of the three-day terrorist attack upon India’s financial capital. While police commandos exchanged gunfire with the remaining Islamist terrorists trapped in the Taj Hotel, the cathedral hosted the funeral of the hotel’s executive chef Vijay Rao Banja.

Ten of the near 200 dead worked in the hotel’s kitchens. Dressed in their chef’s smocks and hotel livery, hundreds of Taj employees — Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Parsees — sang “Amazing Grace” in the city’s colonial-era Anglican Cathedral.

On the first day of the terrorist attack, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams wrote to India’s High Commissioner in London, Shiv Shankar Mukherjee, expressing his shock at the “appalling atrocities in Mumbai.”

He told Mr Mukherjee the prayers of the members of the Anglican Communion were with the people of India. “People everywhere”, Dr Williams said, “stand in solidarity with the innocent and in condemnation of those who would destroy innocent lives out of evil and misguided motives.”

The Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin, Dr Alan Harper and Dr John Neill on Nov 28 released a statement saying the attacks were “deeply shocking … morally indefensible and represent unquestionable evil.

“Our hearts go out to all innocent people from all nations and faiths caught up in the carnage whilst going about their daily lives,” they said. Writing from Glasgow the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Dr Idris Jones said his prayers were with all those “affected by the appalling violence and terror in Mumbai – for those who are injured and for the families of those whose lives have been lost.”

He also prayed for the leaders of the West and the Indian government to find the “courage and wisdom” that would “bring an end to this terror.”

The Irish primates applauded the Indian government’s measured response. “The Indian authorities have been faced with unprecedented brutality and are to be commended for their attempts to respond in defence of the victims and to uphold the rule of law in one of the world’s greatest democracies,” they said.

Since 2004 over 4,000 people have been killed by Muslim and Hindu terrorists in India. In 2005 bombings by Muslim militants in Mumbai killed almost 200.

Attacks by Muslim militants this year in Jaipur and Bangalore, coupled with the persecution of Christians in Orissa by Hindu militants, places the country second only to Iraq in the number of fatalities incurred in the “war on terror.

On Friday the Bishop of Calcutta instructed all schools operated by the Church of North India (CNI) to conduct anti-terror drills. Bishop Ashoke Biswas asked each school to prepare evacuation plans and to conduct rehearsals for locking down the school and moving the children out of harm’s way in case of a terror attack or bombing.

The General Secretary of the CNI, the Rev Enos Das Pradhan, denounced the targeting of foreigners in the terror attacks. “It is a national shame that tourists from other countries, who, having been fascinated by the rich heritage and cultures of India, visit our beautiful and diversified country, have been targeted.”

He appealed for all churches “to pray for peace and reconciliation” — a call echoed by Pope Benedict XVI and faith leaders from around the world. India’s Muslim establishment also denounced the attacks. The All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, condemned the attacks “unconditionally”, IslamOnline said, while The Times of India reported the Mumbai Muslim Council had refused permission for any of the nine dead terrorists to be interred in their cemeteries — and urged all Muslim cemeteries in India to refuse their bodies for burial.