On 27th three persons were killed, hundreds persons got injured, hundreds of houses were burnt, 11 churches were razed – the Chief Minister and officers are claiming 'situation is under control'. This reflects the level of seriousness of the Govt. machinery. The whole administration and Ministers were busy for their BJD party's 10 years' celebration and Mass Meeting at Bhubaneswar on 26th December. While the Christian followers were complaining the local police at Daringibadi about possible attacks from VHP and RSS, the Police was found indifferent. What the administration and the intelligence have been doing all these days? The police forces and CRP are camping in towns only – not in remote villages, where churches, houses were attacked. The communal riot-engineers strategised the riot on the basis of the duly collected database on the other communities – their priests, followers, worship centres etc. If the real rioters and masterminds are moving scot-free under the protection of ruling party leaders, nominal arrest of some people will not stop the riot.
BJP – the ruling partner who condemned the so called attack on Swami Laxmanananda immediately after the incident, without uttering a word for the thousands of victim Christians, is diluting the issue by 'demanding for amendment of conversion law'.
Please find some news items –
Three killed; churches and more prayer houses attacked in Orissa
Special Correspondent , the Hindu
BHUBANESWAR: At least three persons were killed in police firing as several churches and a large number of houses were burnt in different parts of the communal violence-hit Kandhamal district of Orissa on Thursday.
The situation across the district continued to remain volatile for the fourth consecutive day even as additional forces were called in from other places to bring the situation under control.
Three persons were killed as police opened fire at an angry armed mob that attacked the Brahmanigaon police station, Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Southern Range) Satyabrata Sahu told The Hindu over the phone from the district headquarters town of Phulbani in Kandhamal.
Mr. Sahu said the situation in the district was tense, but under control. Policemen, who had been maintaining maximum restraint so far, opened fire in self-defence, he added.
The mob, comprising Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists attacked the police station between 1 and 2 pm when the police tried to prevent them from attacking members of the local Christian community, official sources said.
Superintendent of Police of Gajapati district Amikendranath Sinha who was camping at the police station was injured in the mob attack.
According to sources, a prayer house was damaged at Sankarkhol village, while a mob burnt down a panchayat office at Sugudabadi village of the district.
An official said it was difficult to say how many places of worship were damaged during the day as thousands of prayer houses dotted the district, mostly in remote areas.
Interestingly, the Brahmanigaon violence and arson took place soon after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik visited Phulbani town to review the situation.
On his return to Bhubaneswar around 2 p.m., Mr. Patnaik claimed that the situation in Kandhamal had "normalised" to a great extent.
Confirming that many churches and prayer houses had been damaged, Mr. Patnaik said more than two dozen people had been arrested in the district.
"Action is being taken against the guilty," he said, while reiterating his appeal to the people of Kandhamal to maintain peace and harmony. "Peace committees have been formed and meeting are being held."
As regards the local tribals' opposition to alleged granting of Scheduled Tribe status to Dalits, Mr. Patnaik said the government would look into their grievances.
In Bhubaneswar , Rajya Sabha MP from Kandhamal R. K. Nayak blamed the administration for its `failure' to bring the situation under control.
"The administration has collapsed. There is no law and order in the entire district," Mr. Nayak said.
Orissa Congress chief Jayadev Jena also criticised the government saying that it had failed to control the situation.
BJP demands amendment in anti-conversion laws
Bhubaneswar (PTI): Opposition political parties on Thursday accused the Orissa government of 'shielding' saffron outfits while dealing with violence in Kandhamal district, while the BJP blamed it on 'forced conversion activities' and demanded amendment to conversion laws.
The state's main opposition party Congress along with the CPI, CPI (M), CPI (ML) and NCP, in separate statements, alleged that the Naveen Patnaik government was adopting a 'soft' attitude towards the saffron brigade.
"Since BJP is the coalition partner of the government, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has directed the police to maintain a soft stand against the violence mongers," Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Jaydev Jena alleged.
Describing Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati as a 'political agent' of the BJP, Jena said the communal violence was 'engineered'.
He said the government was hiding facts relating to killing of innocent people.
State BJP president Suresh Pujari, on the other hand, claimed that conversion on threats and coercion was responsible for the communal violence in the tribal dominated district of Kandhamal.
Pujari told PTI that he would call upon both the state and the Centre to immediately bring amendments to the existing anti-conversion laws to avoid communal violence in future.
"The persons engaged in conversions made on the basis of threat and coercion should be severely punished," Pujari said, adding that Kandhamal was a communally volatile district.
Hindus, Christians Clash in India
Thursday December 27, 2007 6:16 PM
By GAVIN RABINOWITZ (GUARDIAN UNLIMITED)
Associated Press Writer
NEW DELHI (AP) - Hindu extremists torched nearly a dozen churches and the home of a Christian leader Thursday, defying a curfew imposed to quell three days of religious violence in eastern India . Christians retaliated by setting fire to several homes belonging to Hindus.
Local police have been unsuccessful in halting the attacks and the federal government announced it was sending in a paramilitary force.
About 19 churches, most of them small mud and thatch buildings, have been razed since violence broke out on Christmas Eve when long-standing tensions between the Hindu majority and the small Christian community erupted over conversions to Christianity.
Hindu groups have long charged Christian missionaries with trying to lure the poor and those who occupy the lowest rungs of Hinduism's complex caste-system away with promises of money and jobs.
On Thursday, a mob of Hindus burned down the house of Radhakant Nayak, a member of India 's upper house of parliament and a Christian leader in the area, Nayak told the CNN-IBN news channel.
Also, 11 churches were ransacked and burned in Kandhamal district of Orissa state, the Press Trust of India quoted unnamed police officials as saying.
Superintendent of Police Narsingh Bhol said several prayer houses were ransacked and some were set on fire, but he did not have the exact number.
Meanwhile, in the village of Brahmangaon , a group of Christians burned down several Hindu homes in an apparent retaliation for the attack on churches. Angry Hindus then burned down the village police station, complaining of a lack of protection, a local police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Bahugrahi Mahapatra, a senior government official in the area confirmed there had been ``disturbances'' in the village, but could not provide details.
One person has been killed and at least 25 people, belonging to both Hindu and Christian communities, have been arrested for suspected involvement in the violence, Bhol told The Associated Press by phone.
But the arrests and curfew have not stopped the attacks and the federal government said it was sending in a 300-strong paramilitary force.
``We have to get the violence under control,'' the junior federal home minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal, told reporters.
India is overwhelmingly Hindu but officially secular. Religious minorities, such as Christians, who account for 2.5 percent of the country's 1.1. billion people, and Muslims, who make up 14 percent, often coexist peacefully.
But throughout India 's history, the issue of conversions has provoked violence by hard-line Hindus.
Orissa has one of the worst histories of anti-Christian violence. An Australian missionary and his two sons, aged 8 and 10, were burned to death in their car in Orissa following a Bible study class in 1999.
Orissa is the only Indian state that has a law requiring people to obtain police permission before they change their religion. The law was intended to counter missionary work.
There were conflicting reports of what started the violence in the rural district of Kandhamal, about 840 miles southeast of New Delhi. Each side blamed the other.
The Hindu hard-liners said Christians had attempted to attack one of their leaders, who heads an anti-conversion movement.
But the New Delhi-based Catholic Bishops Conference of India said the fighting began when Hindu extremists objected to a show marking Christmas Eve, believing it was designed to encourage conversions.
Houses set on fire in Orissa
Agencies
Kandhmal, Dec 27: Two companies of the Central Reserve Police force have been sent to Orissa to control the situation that seems to be spinning out of control.
Earlier in the day a mob allegedly set fire to several homes belonging to Hindus in Brahmanigaon area of the Kandhmal district in Orissa, even as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made an unscheduled visit to the communally sensitive district.
Meanwhile, angry Hindus have reportedly gheraoed the police station.
Curfew in four towns of the district, which was lifted this morning, has been re-imposed with the police anticipating more trouble.
The Chief Minister and DGP Gopal Nanda are at district headquarters of Phulbani to negotiate with the tribals and leaders of Hindu and Christian communities.
Contrary to the reports coming in, the state CM has reportedly claimed that the situation has normalised to a great extent.
According to the district administration, situation in some parts had improved, but tension continued in other areas such as Baliguda and Daringibadi. Many Christian families have fled their homes in Barkhama.
The Centre has asked the state government for a detailed report.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal has said that he is concerned about the situation in the state.
''If situation is not under control today, we'll send a team. We will get the latest report by today evening. We have to get the violence under control and strict action has to be taken.
''We are taking this very seriously and hope the Centre would take it seriously as well,'' said Sriprakash Jaiswal.
In a related development, the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) today sought a report from the state government on the violence in four towns of Kandhamal district.
An NCM delegation will be visiting the trouble-hit towns of the state shortly to make an on-the-spot assessment of the situation, a Commission spokesperson said here.
Eleven more churches torched
Eleven churches and prayer houses were ransacked and torched by suspected saffron activists in several areas of Kandhamal district in the early hours on Thursday.
Seven churches and prayer houses were attacked and set afire in Gandapadar, Badahapanga, Bhandarapada, Pisupadar, Masapadar, Minia and Adigara under Phulbani Sadar police station area, police said.
Rev Basant Diggal alleged that he was assaulted and his motorcycle damaged by a group of miscreants in Minia area where vandals went on rampage causing damage to another church.
Similar incidents of ransacking and burning of three more churches and prayer houses took place in Bakingia, Tiangia and Kotaguda, while miscreants triggered a minor blast at another place of worship, police said.
Last evening, two more churches were burnt by VHP activists. Forty-one houses belonging to Christians in Barhamanigaon were also set on fire despite a strong police presence in the area.
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