Hindu militants in India are offering rewards of money, food and liquor to mobs to kill Christians and destroy their homes, according to partners of human rights organisation, Release International.
"People are being offered rewards to kill, and to destroy churches and Christian properties," a spokesman for the All India Christian Council (AICC) told Release International.
"Different tasks have different rewards," he added. "They are being offered foreign liquor, chicken, mutton and weapons. They are being given petrol and kerosene."
The head of a string of orphanages in Orissa, who has just returned from there, believes Christian leaders are the militants’ key targets.
"The going price to kill a pastor is $250 US dollars," said Dr Faiz Rahman, the chairman of Good News India (GNI).
Dr Rahman says he was able to help 25 pastors leave one camp, but some 250 church leaders remain.
"All of the pastors are high value targets," he told Release International. "We’ve got to get them out of the refugee camps."
The AICC says the violence orchestrated by Hindu militants has now spread to 14 states. On November 11, militants destroyed churches in Tiangia, a village in the Kandhamal district, and extremists tried to kill two Christians who were attempting to return to their village. They managed to escape into the mountains.
According to the AICC, the Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Hindu nationalist Vishwa Hindu Parishad organisation, is now training women fighters to attack Christians.
"They are meeting in secret and training them to use swords and sticks to fight and destroy," says an AICC spokesman.
On their official website, the Bajrang Dal describe themselves as ‘Warriors of the Hindutva Revolution’. Hindutva has been described as ‘Hindu-ness’, which has been used to justify the extreme belief that India should be for Hindus only.
Catholic bishops from Orissa warn of a ‘master-plan’ to drive out Christians from the area. In a letter to the state’s chief minister they write.
