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Indian authorities impose curfew following fresh religious clashes
Authorities imposed a curfew in several towns in eastern India on Wednesday after fresh attacks by Hindus on Christians as clashes over religious conversions spread, officials said.
- Agencies
- Published: 12:15 October 1, 2008
Bhubaneswar: Authorities imposed a curfew in several towns in eastern India on Wednesday after fresh attacks by Hindus on Christians as clashes over religious conversions spread, officials said.
Hindu crowds set fire to houses in two largely Christian villages on Tuesday in the district of Kandhamal in the state of Orissa on Tuesday, killing one person. One church was also burnt. "We have now re-clamped day and night curfew in at least nine towns," district superintendent of police S. Praveen Kumar told Reuters. Ten people have been arrested.
The violence followed a string of attacks on Christians in three states that has killed at least 34 people and damaged dozens of churches in the last month. Christians have responded with some violence in Orissa.
More than 3,700 federal police have been deployed in Orissa, the focus of the violence, although Christian groups and local media have accused police and state authorities of turning a blind eye to some attacks.
The Hindu, a respected national newspaper, reported on Wednesday that many Christians were only allowed to return to their villages if they converted back to Hinduism.
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