Bhubaneswar, India - Global Council of Indian Christians(GCIC) today demanded a CBI inquiry into the forceful conversion of tribal Christians into Hinduism by the VIPS and Bajrang Dal activitis in Orissa.
GCIC National Convenor Sajan K George told newspersons here that forced conversion of Christians into Hinduism in many parts of Orissa , more particularly in Western Orissa, be probed by the CBI as Christians and tribals are forcibly converted at gun point by the radicals in clear violation of the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act (ORFA).
He also alleged that the administrative machineries of the Orissa government were being used by the radicals to intimate and convert the Christian people.
To cite an incident, the GCIC National Convener said in Tumbai village under Gurundia police station in Sundargarh district the tribal Christians were recently converted forcefully by the radicals.
He accused former Union Minister and BJP state unit President Juel Oram of encouraging and funding the conversion of the Christians into the Hinduism in the state.
Mr George alleged that eight Christian families at Palsakutni village in Boudh district in the state were evicted by the Hindu fundamentalists who set ablaze their houses and other belongings and threatened to kill them if they returned to the village.
These panicked Christian families, he said, had taken shelter in dense forest since February 2005 without the bare necessities like fooding, clothing and medical treatment.
The GCIC National convener accused the Naveen Patnaik government of ignoring the plight of the tortured Christians. The Christian families who were assaulted and tonsured in Kilipal and Kanimal villages in Jagatsinghpur district in February 2004, were now facing starvation and deprived of using water from source.
He said while one of the woman was pregnant and seriously ill, three other teenagers who had been pushed out of the village were now residing in a slum in the state capital.
Mr George said the brutal murder of Pastor S Gilbert Raj in Raj Khariar in Nuapada district, the stabbing of pastor Dillip Dalai to death in Begunia village in Khurda district and the gruesome murder of young pastor Gajendra were some of the incidents that reflected how the Christians were targeted and attacked by the radicals in Orissa, he alleged.