Hindu Radicals Held in Christian Killings

The charred bodies of a missionary and his two sons were laid out in wooden coffins Sunday amid a wave of outrage at their killings, the first deaths in a string of attacks on Christians in India.

Police arrested 49 Hindu radicals suspected of burning to death Australian Graham Stewart Staines, 58, and his sons Philip, 10, and Timothy, 8, Saturday as they slept in their utility vehicle.

A police official said nearly 100 people, some armed with bows and arrows, attacked Staines’ vehicle as he and his sons slept outside a village northeast of Baripada, where they attended a Bible study program. The attackers then doused the vehicle with gasoline and set it ablaze, beating any bystanders who tried to rescue the family, police said.

Security was increased in Christian areas as hundreds prepared to attend the funeral for Staines and his sons in Baripada in Orissa state, about 700 miles southeast of New Delhi, the capital.

“We want a private ceremony, but there are hundreds and hundreds of people who are pouring in here from the town and from outside,” said Subhankar Ghosh, a friend of the family.

Sobs broke the silence Sunday at the Baptist Union Church in Baripada, where friends and family members gathered.

Staines, who had lived in the area since 1965, was a secretary of the New Delhi-based Evangelical Missionary Society and had run a home for treating lepers.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee promised to investigate whether members of the Hindu nationalist Bajrang Dal were behind the attack. Many of the 49 people arrested are members, police said.