“This news causes me great concern and I am deeply grieved,” Gladys, now in Australia, said in letters sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the aftermath of the Kandhamal incidents since December 24.
“People need to learn to forgive each other. Forgiveness brings with it healing, as I have experienced following the deaths of my husband and two sons,” Gladys said in her letter, a copy of which was made available to PTI in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday.
Stating that the news about the violence in Kandhamal district had reached her, she said her prayer and desire was that the communities would live together in peace and communal harmony.
Gladys had taken everybody by surprise when she said she had forgiven the killers of her missionary husband and two minor sons Timothy and Philip who were burnt to death on the night of January 22, 1999 at Manoharpur in Orissa’s Keonjhar district.