Sukhbati Gand with her children in a photo taken before her husband Anant Ram Gand was found murdered in India's Odisha state. He had been given an ultimatum to renounce Christianity or face death. Christian man has been found beheaded in Odisha in what family members and local church members believe was an anti-Christian attack, dismissing a police claim that he was killed by Maoist rebels. The body of 40-year-old Anant Ram Gand was found on Feb. 11 on a road in Bhenas village of Nabarangapur district. A local pastor Chandan Jani told ucanews.com that the victim's throat was slit and his head had been crushed by a heavy object. "He seemed to have died unmoved from the spot of attack," he added. Gand is survived by his wife, four girls and a boy. He and his family became Christians three years ago but local Hindu villagers opposed their faith. They forced the family to live on the outskirts of the village and at times were manhandled. "But yet they continued in faith," said Jani. A week before the brutal attack, few villagers had threatened Gand to renounce Christianity or face death, said the pastor, who has remained in contact with the family. Police had registered it as murder carried out

An Indian man who had become a Christian last year was killed and beheaded in eastern India earlier this month, reports Persecution Relief. On 11 February, Anant Ram Gand, 40, was taken from his home in the village of Raigarh Tehsil, in the district of Nabarangapur, Odisha, by three men who killed him and left his decapitated body in the middle of the road. At the time, his wife Sukbati, 38, was away with their four daughters and Anant was at home alone with his 6-year-old son. Since his conversion to Christianity nine months ago, Anant and his family had been harassed by the villagers, the news site reported. They were not only stopped from getting water from the public well, “he was beaten twice in 2018, and excommunicated from the village. He moved his family away … and was living a kilometer away from the village”. Local residents said Hindu militants in the village contracted the Naxal, and Indian Maoist guerrilla group, to kill him, AsiaNews reported. At some point he had been supportive of the guerrilla group and although “he was never a part of the fighters … the Hindus made the Naxals believe that the Christian would reveal their secrets to the police. Instead, Anant Ram