Bhubaneswar, Feb. 22, 2019: A newly converted Christian was beheaded in the eastern Indian state of Odisha allegedly by Maoists at the behest of Hindu radicals.
The body and severed head of Anand Ram Gand were found on a road on February 11 at Raigarh Tehsil village in the Nabarangapur district. However the news about the murder came to light ten days later.
Gand’s 6-year-old son, Purno, witnessed his father being dragged out of their home by three men on the day he was killed. The child said he woke up at the sound of three men knocking at the door and shouting at his father. Then they tied his hands behind his back and dragged him away. The murderers did not stop even before the crying of the little one chasing them: drove off with ferocity. The abductors told the boy not to follow them. The child then went to his uncle’s house nearby and raised the alarm.
On the day of the murder, the victim’s wife Sukbati, 38, went to the nearby village with her four daughters.
According to Shibu Thomas of Persecution Relief that monitors attacks on Christians in India, Gand had decided to become a Christianity only nine months ago. The 40-year-old man was baptized into the Evangelical Church of India along with his family members two months ago.
However, Hindu radicals in the village disapproved his change of faith. Tension brewed over following traditional tribal customs. Enraged by Gand family’s cultural separation, the radicals allegedly informed Maoists that he was a police informer.
“This quiet spoken man, who lived peacefully in the village with his family, was murdered for his faith,” Thomas bemoaned.
Sukbati said that she was fearful about their future and terrified what the religious fanatics might do to her and her five children. “My master is dead. He has been killed for his faith in Jesus Christ. But I am sure I will not forsake Jesus Christ my Savior and Lord. Please remember us in your prayers so that we stand strong in faith and all our daily needs are met. God bless.”
Gand had in the past expressed sympathy for the Maoist guerrillas. “He was never a part of the fighters, but the Hindus made the Naxals believe that the Christian would reveal their secrets to the police. Instead Anant Ram was no enemy of anyone,” Thomas said in his report.
“I ask the prime minister and the governor to speak clearly against persecution of Christians,” he added. “The Christians of the villages live in fear,” he noted.
Maoists, who are communist guerrilla groups locally known as Naxalites, are engaged in armed fights with the Indian paramilitary forces in remote tribal areas. Christians are often “caught in the crossfire,” Thomas says.
In August 2015, Maoists killed Pastor Gurumurthy Madi in the Malkangiri district of Odisha, because he would not hand over a fellow Christian pastor who had previously been a Naxalite. Another Christian leader was killed by Naxalites in neighboring Chhattisgarh state in the same month.
Being a Christian today in India means being harassed every day, Thomas says. “If you pray in the family you are beaten, if you pray in a domestic church you are beaten, in the streets you are beaten. Article 25 of the Constitution [which protects the freedom of belief and the spread of the faith, ed.] Is not applicable for Christians in India. We want to be protected. Now the Christians of the villages live in fear.”
Nabarangapur is some 255 km southwest of Kandhamal that in 2008 witnessed the worst anti-Christian violence in modern times.
(Sources: barnabasfund.org and agencies)