Author: Ravik Bhattacharya
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: August 29, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/354813.html
[Note from the Hindu Vivek Kendra: Serious
attempts will be made by the secualr media to keep this item from the public.
There will not even be crocodile tears shed by the concerned citizens about
the trauma faced by the girls. And our prime minister will not even lose a
moment of his sleep, even if he were to hear the anguish of the girls.]
While violence rages across Kandhamal district,
in the ashram, where its spark was lit when Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati
and four others were killed on August 24, the adults are angry, the children
traumatised.
Many of the 130 girls in the Kanya Ashram,
a residential school on the campus, were eyewitnesses to the killing of the
VHP leader and that incident has burnt memories they will never forget.
"First, we thought someone is bursting
crackers and so we ran towards the main gate. Then we saw and heard people
screaming and running. There was blood all over the place. Swamiji and Mataji
and others were lying in blood. I shouted and ran away, we all started running
here and there," said 15-year old Anita Pradhan. She is from Raikia and
has been in the ashram for three years.
According to Anita, it was around 7 in the
evening, prayer time in the students' quarters. Swamiji and Mataji Bhaktimoyee,
head of the girls hostel, were inside Swamiji's room adjacent to the main
entrance.
According to eyewitnesses, 10 to 15 men climbed
the wall and started firing indiscriminately. They first shot dead Amritanandji,
a disciple of Swamiji. The attackers then entered a small room, home to Prabhati
Ganta, the guardian of one of the students who was living there. They shot
him, too. Later, Kishore Baba, a resident of Boudh, was shot just outside
this room.
It was then that they broke open Saraswati's
room. "Swamiji ran into the toilet to save himself and shut the door.
Mataji, who hid behind the door, was shot first. The miscreants then broke
open the toilet door and sprayed bullets," said an eyewitness.
Vijaylaxmi Mullick, a Class X student at the
ashram, is too traumatised to narrate the incident. Her voice trembles and
falters as she remembers. "I rushed towards the main gate along with
others only to see some men running around and loud cracking noise. I heard
the cries of Swamiji and others. I saw other Swamijis running here and there.
I was scared and ran inside the hostel room with another girl. We sat huddled
together. Until after a long time, one of the Swamijis came and escorted us
out of the room."
Kusum Pradhan, a Class 6 student, could not
venture out of her hostel room after dark following the incident. "I
too rushed out after hearing the noise. I saw bodies lying in blood. I touched
Swamiji's feet, who was lying in the bathroom. It was still warm but he did
not move. Nor did Mataji, who lay inside the room," was all Kusum could
say.
The 130 girls, who now reside inside the hostels
of the sprawling ashram, now cannot venture out. The ashram is guarded by
CRPF and Orissa police constables. The girls' relatives are unable to visit
the ashram and take them home because of the violence and the ongoing curfew
in the district.
Brahmachari Shankar Chaitanya, who is now
in charge of the ashram and is always escorted by police constables and CRPF
personnel, seethes with anger against both Christians and the state government.
"We had written 30 times to the state government that Swamiji's and our
lives were at stake, that we were being threatened by Christian leaders. Before
the incident, we got a letter threatening to kill Swamiji. We formally complained
to the police and district authorities. They sent only four baton-wielding
constables," said Shankar Chaitanya. "Not a single minister visited
us after the incident, not even of our BJP. The Collector comes sometimes.
He gave us rice, dal and sugar for the children."
Chaitanya alleged that it was Christians,
not Maoists, who were responsible for the incident. "The Maoists can
never do this. It is Christians who threaten us everyday and they did this,"
he said. He alleged that the ashram has been kept out of the peace process.
"No one called us for any meeting or to take part in any peace process.
As long as are kept out, the violence will continue."
