By The Wire Staff
New Delhi: A people’s tribunal constituted by Karwan-e-Mohabbat and a collective of citizens, who visited multiple districts of Odisha from May 2-5, to investigate rising anti-Christian violence there, have released an open letter presenting their grim findings. The letter is addressed to the Odisha chief secretary.
After meeting with and talking to around 300 people, the tribunal alleged widespread attacks on Christian minorities, especially Adivasi and Dalit communities, including assaults on churches and clergy, forced disruption of worship, false conversion cases, social and economic boycotts, expulsions from villages, and obstruction of Christian burials. The tribunal also reported physical assaults, sexual violence, and intimidation. It accused police, civil officials, and political representatives of complicity, including coercing Christians to renounce their faith, and called on the Odisha government to uphold constitutional rights.
The full open letter, as published on Countercurrents, is below.
We are members of a people’s tribunal that Karwan-e-Mohabbat and a collective of concerned citizens have constituted to investigate the growing incidents of anti-Christian discrimination and violence in many states of India.
Among the states that have caused special concern is Odisha with an unfortunate long history of violence targeting its Christian minorities especially amongst its Adivasi and Dalit communities.
We, members of this people’s tribunal travelled in Odisha between 2nd to 5th May 2026. The places we visited were Nabarangpur, Jeypore, Balasore and Baripada. In these meetings we met with around 300 women and men from Nabarangpur, Koraput, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Anugul, Sambalpur, Rayagada, Khorda and Jajpur.
The testimonies that we heard from all the people the tribunal met in the course of its travels in Odisha are extremely harrowing and worrying. From the accounts, it is beyond doubt that the Odisha state government is doing little to prevent the brazen and continuous violations of the fundamental rights of its Christian, mostly adivasi and dalit citizens. Firstly, under assault is their fundamental right of freedom of conscience and faith guaranteed under Art 25 of the Constitution. They have also been denied protection of their life, liberty and livelihoods, and their freedom to choose where they live and work.
However even more worrying than simply attacks by organized formations reportedly closely affiliated to the ruling BJP and its ideological mentor, the RSS, is repeated testimonies of the role of the police, the civil administration, elected representatives and even members of the state cabinet who encouraged and participated in the persecution of Christian minorities and the denial of their fundamental rights. It was particularly striking that one of the districts which has seen the worst anti-Christian violence includes the constituency represented by the Ministry of Minority Welfare.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.