I’ve forgiven Dara: Gladys

Gladys Staines,whose husband Graham Stuart Staines and their two sons — Philip,10,and Timothy,7 — were killed by a mob led by Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh 10 years ago,along with her daughter Esther joined others in a prayer service held in memory of her husband near the Graham Staines Memorial Hospital in Baripada on Friday.

The 57-year-old widow said she has no “bitterness or ill-feeling towards the killers of her husband”. “I have forgiven Dara. With forgiveness comes healing. If we don’t forgive,we become bitter. When we forgive,there is no bitterness and we live our lives,” she told The Indian Express over phone from her Baripada home. “Of course I miss my husband,his love. My daughter would very much love to have her father back. But one thing is for sure: we are going to meet in heaven. That thought gives me solace.”

On the ill-fated night of January 22,1999,Graham Staines,the Australian missionary,was burnt alive along with his two sons while they were sleeping in their Willy’s Station Wagon at Manoharpur village in Orissa’s Mayurbhanj district. Dara was first handed out a death sentence by a trial court in the murder case in 2003,but his sentence was later commuted to life sentence by the Orissa High Court. He is now serving the sentence in a Baripada jail.