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Christmas celebrations will be
awashed in fear of saffron goons
WSN Network
BHUBANESHWAR:
Across India, Christians will be celebrating Christmas perhaps in
one of the most disturbing times as Hindutva forces target
minorities and justice is nowhere on the horizon for hundreds of
thousands who were rendered homeless in Orissa and other states in
2008 violence.
Instead, saffon
brigades threatened bandhs and protests even on Christmas day and a
hapless government was beseeching right wing Hindu fundamentalist
bodies to change the bandh date.
With Christians
in riot-hit Kandhamal afraid to perform midnight mass in churches
located in remote areas on Christmas eve, the Orissa government on
Tuesday promised adequate security but few believed its will and
capacity to enforce the writ of the law.
Orissa Home
Secretary Aditya Padhi met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Chief
Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy but sensing little outcome, the
archbishop's house in Bhubaneshwar asked churches in remote, hilly
and forest areas in Kandhamal to avoid
midnight mass
due to fear of attack.
Archbishop
Raphael Cheenath said he has advised churches in remote areas in
Kandhamal against midnight mass because people will be returning to
their houses at around 1 am in the night after the midnight prayer.
"We feel it is not safe to return home so late," he said.
24 December
2008
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