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Indian police held main suspect in Australian missionary murder

BHUBANESHWAR (India): The chief suspect in last year's gruesome murder of an Australian Christian missionary was arrested on Tuesday during a night raid on his forest hideout in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, police said. The swoop on Dara Singh by a team of about 50 police brought to an end the one-year hunt for a notorious figure who has been linked to an hardline Hindu group, the Bajrang Dal.

Singh, wanted in several criminal cases, had been on the run since a mob of Hindu zealots burnt missionary Graham Staines, 58, and his two young sons to death while they slept in a jeep on January 23.

Singh, who was identified by an inquiry into the murders as the leader of the mob, was arrested along with two of his sons, both minors, and a close associate.

The official said Singh was likely to be charged in court in Bhubaneshwar, the state capital, on Wednesday.

The Staines murder came amid a spate of attacks on India's minority Christian community by fanatics and prompted worldwide protests.

Many of the fanatics were said to belong to Hindu groups to which the Bharatiya Janata Party, which leads the federal coalition government, has links.

ARREST GREETED WITH RELIEF

Staines had lived in India for 30 years and ran a home for lepers in Baripada, about 140 km (90 miles) from where he died.

Father Isaac Puthensngany, a priest in the Balasore diocese where Staines was killed, told Reuters by phone: "It is a good thing that he has been arrested...after so many months. The government has done a good thing now."

Police had initially blamed activists of the Hindu extremist Bajrang Dal group for the murders. Bajrang Dal denied involvement.

The findings of an inquiry released in August exonerated the Bajrang Dal. Describing Singh as a lone religious fanatic, the report said he was to blame for the murder of the missionary, whose widow has kept his leprosy project alive.

Hindu extremist groups say missionaries like Staines have been forcefully converting the poor and tribals. The inquiry report said Staines was not involved in conversions.

Christian activists deny accusations of forceful conversion, and say they only provide charity. Church leaders have pointed out that India's Christian community, which at 22 million is just over two percent of the population, is actually shrinking.

Christian activists say Hindu extremist groups have become emboldened by the Hindu nationalist BJP's rise to power.

A U.S. State Department report last year linked the BJP and its shadowy ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to violence against religious minorities.

The same link was made in a hard-hitting report by Human Rights Watch, a leading human rights group.

"Attacks against Christians point to a disturbing trend of the assertion of Hindu nationalism by governments in power at the state and central level," the report said.-Reuters