allegedly part of a Hindu militant group blamed for the "gruesome" killing of two native Christian missionaries last month, BosNewsLife learned Monday, June 27. The accused, who police sources identified only as ‘Goverdhan’, an auto rickshaw driver, was detained following a joint operation by special security forces and the the Counter-Intelligence team of the police in the state capital Hyderabad, BosNewsLife learned.
Police say Goverdhan and two other, still fugitive, militants are believed to have abducted and killed 35-year old Pastor K Daniel who was found murdered in the town of Shamshabad near the Hyderabad on May 20.
The body of Pastor Isaac Raj, who was 55, was discovered on May 25 in the Golconda area, just outside the state capital. Daniel, was allegedly killed Thursday May 19, by "Hindu extremists", the day when a court acquitted fellow militants in the murder of another, Australian, missionary and his two children, local missionary sources told BosNewsLife earlier.
COURT CASE
May 19 was also the date when the High Court of India’s north-eastern state of Orissa overturned a death sentence given to Dara Singh for his involvement in the murders of Australian Missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons Philip and Timothy in 1999. "Whoever killed [K. Daniel] put his body in a gunny sack and threw it outside the city into the bushes," added a local ministry official in a Christian Aid Mission statement.
Christian advocacy group All Indian Christian Council said that just a few days later Pastor Raju, was found "wrapped in a jute bag that was dumped behind bushes in the Golconda area."
Police said Sunday, June 26, that those responsible for the killings are belonging to the militant group Hindu Vahini, or ‘Hindu army’, which was allegedly "enraged" over the evangelical activities of the victims as it opposes conversions.
MAIN MOTIVE
The main motive for killing the pastors was to revenge the conversion of a close relative of prime accused Goverdhan to Christianity, police officials said. But in a statement Hindu Vahini denied any role in the killings and said police forces "had tortured its activists to ‘implicate’ them in the murder cases."
Police said Goverdhan and his associates had earlier "assaulted Daniel and threatened Isaac Raj" after they had held prayer meetings in their neighborhood, before resorting to "the gruesome murders."
News of the latest arrest came just over a week after police confirmed the detention of a Hindu preacher Vibhag Pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) party in the town of Warangal, about 170 kilometers (apr. 106 miles) outside Hyderabad.
RSS DENIES
Despite the arrest of the RSS preacher, the party has denied reported suggestions by United States experts that it could be considered as a terrorist group. "I urge the Indian news media to refrain from spreading false news about RSS without any sound basis," said RSS official Jitendra Kumar.
Police officials say they will continue a manhunt to find the remaining suspects in the murders and the role played by militant Hindu organizations. "Leads suggest that some communal organizations could be behind the murder of Gospel preacher" Daniel and Pastor Raju, said city Police Commissioner, V. Dinesh Reddy, earlier this month.
He told reporters that "phone calls received on preacher K. Daniel’s mobile" provided "important clues." Police had also offered awards of up to $2,300 in local currency for information leading to arrests.
INCREASING PRESSURE
The police has come under increasing pressure to solve the murders quickly, amid growing concern within the Christian community about what church leaders describe as growing Hindu violence in several areas of India.
Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, told a Christian delegation he was "concerned" about the killings of the men. (BosNewsLife Chief International Correspondent Stefan J. Bos contributed to the story. Satya Sundar Mishra is BosNewsLife India Reporter based in Orissa. Mishra, 26, is a Development Journalist of Orissa working on social and religious issues that are not yet on the radar screen of media and politicians. He has been working for a variety of key publications. The reporter can be reached via e-mail satya_mishra11@rediffmail.com ).
