Militant Hindu Group Cleared of Involvement in Missionary’s Death

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ORISSA, INDIA, February 12, 2003: This report from The Voice of the Martyrs, Canada, a Christian watchdog group, states, “Four years after the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, India’s Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has claimed that none of the suspects are members of the militant Hindu group, Bajrang Dal. Graham Staines and his two minor sons — Philip and Timothy — were burnt alive as they slept in a jeep at Manoharpur in Keonjhar district in Orissa on January 23, 1999. Eyewitnesses to the murder reported that those responsible were shouting, ‘Bajrang Dal Zindabad’ (‘Long live Bajrang Dal’). Several of those arrested for the murder were also reported to be members of the group that is actively opposing Christianity and Islam in India, including training volunteers to fight against them. Bajrang Dal [has always denied] any responsibility for the attack on Staines. ‘We were framed,’ said Subash Chouhan, the chief of the Bajrang Dal’s Orissa unit. ‘Now the truth has come to light.’ ”