Lead story - This Week INDIA: HINDUS IN ORISSA MAYHEM HELP PROTECT CHRISTIANSAnother inflammatory funeral procession planned for Sunday, in spite of ban. BHUBANESWAR, September 5 (Compass Direct News) – Asserting that most area Hindus are tolerant, peaceable and helped protect them, victims of ongoing anti-Christian violence in the eastern state of Orissa blamed the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP) and other extremist groups for the terror of the past two weeks. Following the killing of a VHP leader, Laxmanananda Saraswati, and four of his associates in Kandhamal district on August 23, Christian leaders say more than 100 lives have been lost and thousands of houses, churches and institutions damaged or destroyed in the violence. The state government attributed the assassination of the VHP leader and his associates to Maoists who have since claimed responsibility for the murders, but the Hindu extremist groups continue to blame Christians. Asked if he condemned the violence on Christians, VHP Orissa State President Gauri Prasad Rath told Compass that he categorically did not. “You should ask me to condemn the killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and his associates with AK-47s by Christians,” he said.
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