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Graham Staines murder case: A dark stain on India’s conscience

Islamabad: Twenty-five years ago, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, Philip and Timothy, were brutally murdered by a Hindu mob in Odisha, India.

According to Kashmir Media Service, even in death they were inseparable. Charred beyond recognition and reduced to fragile frames of ashes, the three bodies lay clinging to each other in what must have been a vain attempt to protect each other and escape the mob.

On the fateful night of January 22-23 in the wilderness of Manoharpur village in the sleepy rural outback of Orissa’s Keonjhar district, nothing worked for the hapless father and his two sons. Having surrounded them from all sides, a murderous crowd set fire to the old four-wheel drive Willys station wagon in which the three had retired for the night.

The beastly act done, Australian-born Christian missionary Graham Stewart Staines, 58, and his two sons, Phillip, 10, and Timothy, 7, were put to sleep forever. No sooner had its macabre mission been completed than the mob melted away in the darkness as the flames that had leapt skywards simmered. But the heat generated by the senseless killings and the outrage stoked are far from ebbing days after the incident.

The case of Graham Staines remains a shocking glimpse of Indian Hindu extremism, intolerance and violence. A judicial inquiry was conducted, and the Wadhwa Commission report cleared Staines of allegations of forced conversions.

The handling of the incident sparked widespread outrage and condemnation by the International community, describing it as “a monumental aberration of tolerance and harmony.”

Despite the conviction of a few, many feel that the justice system failed to adequately address the role of Hindu extremist groups. Graham’s widow stated that she had to struggle to get justice.

The incident highlights the Hindu extremists’ mindset intolerance and violence in India, with Christians and other minorities continuing to face persecution

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