Abel Jarek Dies in Attack on Salvation Crusade Township

Pator – Abel Jarek, the leader of the Salvation Crusade, a movement of former slaves preaching the Amarrian faith, died yesterday during an attack by masked vigilantes in the township he founded for his followers in the Tronhadar Valley region of Matar. The news spread quickly among the scattered Salvation Crusade communities, inducing shock and disbelief among their number. While some considered Jarek to be overly evangelistic in his approach, other Minmatar converts to the Amarr faith expressed deep concern at the killing.

The attack on the township of Salvation, as it has become known by members of the Crusade and outsiders alike, is reported to have begun shortly after morning prayers were led by Abel Jarek in the settlement's central square. The Salvation Crusade has not built a church since the destruction of their church in the main Matar refugee camp, an incident Jarek attributed to "divine punishment for [his] own pridefulness." Witnesses state that around 20 masked men drove into the square in a variety of all-terrain vehicles, common in the hilly country of the Tronhadar, and then indiscriminately beat anyone in sight with staves and heavy tools. Two witnesses independently attest that Jarek intervened to stop two of the attackers as they assaulted a man lying on the ground. Jarek was apparently struck on the head and expired shortly after the attackers left the town. All agree that Abel Jarek was knocked completely unconscious, his morning prayers standing as his last words before dying.

The settlement of Salvation was controversial from the day Jarek and his followers arrived in the lower Tronhadar. As a region with large swathes of both formally-recognised and informally-claimed Krusual Tribe ancestral lands, most observers saw Jarek's decision to found a permanent religious community there as a deliberate provocation. Sources within the Krusual Tribe say that, at the request of Sanmatar Maleatu Shakor, Chief Tenerhaddi Dykon has attempted to calm emotions within the tribe. Despite the Chief's efforts, the upper Tronhadar clans in particular have continued to view Salvation township as an intolerable intrusion by a hated foe into their ancient territories. While no-one will publicly state as much, some in the tribe privately indicate that the attackers were almost certainly Krusual from one of the many mining towns in the region.