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Churches attacked during Orissa riots
Hundreds of federal police were deployed in India's eastern state of Orissa yesterday as Hindu hardliners burnt and damaged 12 churches in communal clashes, killing at least one person, police said.
- Reuters, IANS
- Published: 00:13 December 27, 2007
- Police stand guard in front of a church at Darigibadi in Phulbani district of Orissa on Wednesday after communal riots.
- Image Credit: AP
Bhubaneswar: Hundreds of federal police were deployed in India's eastern state of Orissa yesterday as Hindu hardliners burnt and damaged 12 churches in communal clashes, killing at least one person, police said.
Christians also damaged at least three Hindu temples during the clashes, a local Hindu group said.
The reported injury of a local Hindu leader by a Christian group on Monday sparked two days of violence over Christmas in the Kandhamal district of southern Orissa by hardliners who accuse Christian groups of converting low-caste Hindus.
Situation tense
"The situation is tense but under control," said B.B. Mishra, a state inspector-general of police. A curfew put in place on Tuesday evening will be enforced for at least another night in four sensitive neighbourhoods.
Local television channels showed one ransacked church, with its windows smashed and broken furniture strewn across the floor. Another channel showed charred remains of a church roof. Riots continued in Kandhamal district yesterday despite indefinite curfew orders.
As Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists prevented police from entering villages where they attacked Christians, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik deputed two more senior state government officials to the region.
Police station ransacked
According to Kandhamal district police chief Narasimha Bhol, hundreds of people ransacked Firingia police station yesterday afternoon.
"I cannot say if anybody has been injured," Bhol said. The police could not reach many of the trouble spots as VHP supporters blocked roads to the affected villages with logs.
"The roads are still blocked and the police are trying to reach the villages. The state government has sent two companies of paramilitary forces and extra police force to the region to control the situation. They are on their way," Bhol said.
A mob vented their ire on the home of former member of parliament Sribatsa Digal at Phulbani, said an official of the district intelligence bureau.
Authorities blamed
The hardliners, some linked to India's main Hindu-nationalist grouping, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), have often accused Christian priests of bribing poor tribespeople and low-caste Hindus to change their faith.
A senior Christian leader said state authorities had turned a blind eye to the violence.
He compared the situation to that in Gujarat state, where a BJP-led government has been accused of inciting violence against Muslim and Christian minority communities.
"I feel the government has allowed them to continue this sort of thing somehow, because I am afraid they are repeating what happened in Gujarat in the last two-three years," Raphael Cheenath, Archbishop of Bhubaneswar, the provincial capital, told local television.
B. Barik, a local Hindu organisation leader, said the clashes began after Christian groups placed religious statues at a Hindu religious site. He said that at least three Hindu temples had been damaged in the clashes, although police said they could not confirm this.
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