Suspected murderer of missionary is arrested

The main suspect in the murder of an Australian missionary and his two young sons a year ago was arrested in the eastern Indian state of Orissa yesterday.

Police said Mr Dara Singh, a radical Hindu activist, walked into their trap in the jungles near Gohirta village, 180 miles north of the state capital, Bhubaneshwar, a year after he burned to death Mr Graham Staines (58), and his sons, Philip (10) and Timothy (8), as they slept in their jeep after attending a Bible study meeting in a remote village.

Later, Mr Singh reportedly burned alive a Muslim trader and murdered a Catholic priest in nearby districts.

"I am glad that he [Singh] has been arrested and is no longer free to kill other people," Ms Gladys Staines, the missionary's widow, said.

Along with her daughter, Ms Staines opted to stay in India.

The Staines killing was the most serious of dozens of attacks on Christians, their property and churches by Hindu fundamentalists linked to the federal coalition government of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee. The fanatics accused the missionaries of forcibly converting poor Hindus to Christianity.

A federal investigating commission, however, exonerated all Hindu parties associated with the government of culpability in the murder of the Staines family.

But local Hindu leaders have repeatedly justified attacks on Christians on the grounds that missionaries had to be "punished" for launching a drive to convert lower-caste Hindus to Christianity, a charge denied by church leaders.

India has over 17 million Christians, who form 2.43 per cent of the country's predominantly Hindu population.

Several Christian organisations have criticised the Orissa government's recent order preventing conversions without prior permission of district magistrates and the local police. They are meeting later this month in Calcutta to discuss the issue and hold a protest march.

"The new rules violate a citizen's fundamental rights," a spokesman for the Calcutta-based Christian Forum said. The state government is trying to change the fabric of the constitution, he declared.

According to the amended Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967, anyone wishing to convert will first face a police inquiry on why they wish to change their religion. Police will question the relatives and neighbours of the potential convert and only after they are satisfied will the district magistrate permit the conversion to take place.