crime, but elsewhere in India violence against Christians have continued, BosNewsLife learned Wednesday March 7.
Samandar Singh "could not stop himself from tearfully offering a handful of flowers on the grave of Sister Rani Maria whom he murdered on February 25, 1995," said Sajan George, the national president of advocacy group Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC).
George said Singh travelled to her grave in the area of Udainagar in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas District to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the killing. The former contract killer apparently stepped the nun about 50 times on a bus because her tough stand against reported injustice towards poor villagers angered moneylenders and feudal lords.
However, "Samandar is now a transformed man as he saw affection and forgiveness in the yes of Sister Maria’s family," George added.
PRISON PAROLE
The family even helped him get parole after appealed to the local governor for his release. Samandar was eventually set free on August 22, 2006, after spending over 11 years in prison.
In 2002 the nun’s sister, also a Clarist nun, Sister Selmy Paul, met Singh in prison during the Hindu festival of Rakshabandan and symbolically accepted him as her brother by tying a thread around his wrist.
"This change the heart of the killer," George recalled. Samandar reportedly said he now realizes he "committed the most reprehensible sin by taking the life of an angel who worked
for the poor."
News of the public display of forgiveness came however amid fresh reports of violence
against Christians elsewhere in Madhya Pradesh. GCIC said is has learned that Hindu
militants on Tuesday March 6 attacked Pastor Binoy Kuriakose and 10 of his team members
as they were distributing Christian literature in the area of Tehsil Salayana, about
17 kilometers (10 miles) from the city of Ratlam.
SEVERAL INJURED
Pastor Binoy and co-workers identified only as Rajeev, 35, and Vijay, 33, were treated for
head, shoulder and leg injuries, following the attack by members of the influential Hindu
groups RSS and Bajrang Dal, George said. Earlier about 15 Hindu militants on March 2 reportedly attacked a Christian meeting in the Patakhera area of Madhya Pradesh state’s Betul district, slightly injuring several of dozens of men and women, while vandalizing and looting the facility, Indian Christians said.
There were also other reports of attacks against Christians including in the Indian state of
Tamil Nadu where Hindu militants reportedly attacked Pastor Paul Chinnaswamy, a church planter in the Hosur-Krishnagiri area. Last week on February 28, "he went with a small team of
evangelists to the Jakkeri village. They had a drum, which they used to accompany their singing, and a large vessel in which they were carrying drinking water," George said.
"Just as they started singing, a group of villagers came up and threatened them. They broke the drum and smashed the drinking water vessel with a stout log," Gerge said, adding that militants were "opposed to the Christians" as they allow different Hindu castes to drink from the same vessel.
In other recent incidents:
— Hindu militants in Mumbai, the capital of the state of Maharashtra, two Christian youth
were beaten Saturday, March 3, for distributing Christian tracts, GCIC investigators said.
Bobby D’Souza, 24 and Sandip Mohite, 21, were apparently injured in the attack. Elsewhere in
the state’s Badlapur area independent Pastor Fernandez faces a court case on charges of
"forced conversion" after a Hindu mother complained he failed to cure her mentally h
handicapped daughter, Christian investigators said.
"Lakshmi Shetty who has a mentally handicapped daughter requested Pastor Fernandez to cure her child. For more than 3 months she attended Sunday worship and when there was no improvement in her daughters condition, she falsely accused the Pastor of pressurizing her to convert to Christianity," George said. Also in Maharashtra five students of the Deliver Church Bible College were injured after being attacked in the Panvel area February 19, when they were distributing Christian literature, the GCIC said. The injured students were identified as Elisha Amolik, 22, Suresh Sonu Masiha, 21, Mishak Kiran Samuel, 20, Bramhanand Pradhan, 22 and Kartik Ekka, 20.
–"Many Christians" were also injured when hundreds of suspected Hindu militants on February 28, raided the Believers Church Bible College in the Indian state of Orissa and beat staff members and students, investigators told BosNewsLife.
— In the state of Chhattisgarh February 25, "a mob" of up to 80 "Hindu extremists" of the
Bajrang Dal group attacked the house of Pastor T.N.Jose in Surgi village of near the state’s
capital of Raipur, the GCIC said. The pastor was allegedly manhandled and been told he
would be "cut into pieces" if he did not leave the village by early next day. He is now
in hiding, fearing for his live, Christians said.
–India’s state of Karnataka saw also violence last month. There, Hindu militants reportedly
beat pastors and other believers and vandalized a prayer hall on February 17 in the
Hiriyur area of Chitradurga district. The GCIC said the attack, in which no Christian was seriously injured, took place at a two-day meeting in the prayer hall and was linked to the RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad or World Hindu Council.
Human rights groups have linked the apparently increasing number of attacks against Christians in India to anger among Hindu groups about the spread of Christianity in especially rural areas and among tribals and ‘Dalits’, also known as the ‘untouchables’ as they are seen as the ‘lowest caste’ in India’s ancient system of Hinduism. Most of India’s roughly 1.1 billion people are Hindus. (With BosNewsLife reports, BosNewsLife Research and additional reporting from India).
