Hindu hardliners in Orissa threaten Christians

(April 09, 2012) Security was stepped up on Easter Sunday, around a historic Catholic church and an adjacent convent in eastern India’s Orissa state where Hindu hardliners threatened to murder a priest, sparking fears of renewed anti-Christian violence that killed many people in the area four years ago, church officials said. The 'Mary Mother of God Parish Church' in Sukananda village of Orissa's troubled Kandhamal District said it asked for protection from security forces after the local parish priest, Fr. Sisirakant Sabhanayak, received death threats, ahead of Easter. Church officials say they are on high alert as their church, the priest’s residence and the adjacent convent of the Missionaries of Charity nuns were badly ransacked, looted, destroyed and demolished during anti-Christian violence of 2008 in Kandhamal district that killed some 100 people. The latest tensions began March 29 when Hindus hardliners began to destroy a road leading to the Grotto of Mary on a hill behind the century-old church, Christians said. Fr. Sabhanayak reportedly tried to halt the destruction but the extremists continued, and came back with heavy machinery on March 30. They also allegedly abused the priest verbally and physically, threatening to kill him. The priest was again manhandled on April 4, and two days later was threatened. After Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar appealed to the Kandhamal District Superintendent on Good Friday, police were sent to the site.