According to a fact-finding investigation by the All-India Christian Council (AICC), the violence that swept Orissa state beginning on Christmas Eve was the worst ever experienced by Christians in India.

The investigators also found indications that the violence was deliberate and co-ordinated.

“It is beyond doubt that the violence was premeditated, preplanned, and the work of a well-disciplined group to ensure simultaneous eruptions across the district within hours of the first incident, and to sustain it for five days despite the presence of the highest police officers in the region,” said Christian leader and human rights activist Dr. John Dayal, who returned from a fact-finding visit to Kandhamal.

“The great human tragedy and violence against Christians was waiting to happen,” Dayal told Compass. “It was part of a great conspiracy, and the guilty are identified and known. The tragedy will repeat again unless urgent steps are taken.”
. . .
“This was the first time that such a large number of Christian villagers were displaced and had to live in refugee camps after their houses were burnt,” said Dayal, secretary general of the All India Christian Council. “This is the first time in history since the Independence [in 1947] that an estimated 3,000 Christian men, women and children are forced to live in two refugee camps, eating boiled rice not fit for human consumption because of the quantity of sand and grit, and living in the cold without toilets, precious little medical care and no woolens.”

Of the 650,000 people living in Kandhamal district, about 100,000 are Christian, most of them Dalits.

The AICC’s full report is posted here.

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