BHUBANESHWAR, INDIA — Maoist rebels say they murdered a hard-line Hindu leader whose death triggered violence between Hindus and Christians that left dozens dead, a television news channel reported Sunday.
Right-wing Hindu groups had blamed Christians for the Aug. 24 killing of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati in the eastern state of Orissa.
They set fire to a Christian orphanage, and mobs then attacked churches and Christian-owned shops and homes. At least 28 people have been killed in villages across the state.
A Maoist group claimed responsibility for the killing of the Hindu religious leader and accused the state government of stoking tensions between Hindus and Christians, the NDTV news channel reported.
“We ordered (the) death penalty for Swami Laxmanananda,” Sabyasachi Panda of the Orissa branch of the Communist Party of India-Maoist told NDTV.
Panda said the Hindu leader and his followers had falsely accused Christians of killing cows, which are holy for Hindus, and of forcing Hindus to convert to Christianity.
“This forced us to attack him,” NDTV quoted Panda as saying.
Panda said rebels left two letters claiming responsibility for the murders, but that local officials had suppressed them.
“The state government made it look like Christian groups are responsible for the attack,” NDTV quoted him as saying.
The Maoist group could not immediately be reached to confirm the reported comments.
Police had said immediately after the Hindu leader’s murder that they suspected Maoist guerrillas because they had left a letter claiming responsibility. They said the attack may have been an attempt by the rebels to win the support of villagers who have converted to Christianity.
Christian leaders have also criticized the state government, saying officials haven’t done enough to stop the violence.
Senior police official Manmohan Praharaj declined to comment Sunday.
Subash Chouhan, a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council, the umbrella organization of Hindu nationalist groups, dismissed the Maoist claim of responsibility.
“We don’t believe what he said,” Chouhan said. “Why all of a sudden so many days after the incident has he come and spoken to the television channels?” Militant Hindus say their country’s true religion is being undermined by Christian missionaries they accuse of using bribery, pressure and even murder to gather more followers.
Roughly 80 percent of India’s 1.1 billion people are Hindu, but the nation is officially secular. Christians account for 2.5 percent of the population.
Conversion to Christianity offers low-caste Hindus a way to escape caste discrimination, and some missionaries run medical clinics and schools that can be far better than state-run institutions.
The missionaries deny forcing anyone to convert.
