New Delhi: Communal tension refuses to abate in Orissa's Kandhamal district even three days after a VHP leader was shot dead during a suspected Naxal attack at the Jalespata ashram on Saturday night.
Hindus and Christians clashed in Barakhama village in Kandhamal and the ensuing gunbattle resulted in the death of four people including one woman.
The authorities have extended curfew to nine areas in the district from three. Section 144, which prohibits the assembly of five or more people at a place, have been clamped across Kandhamal.
Police rushed more forces to the area and along with paramilitary forces, held flag marches in troubled towns of the district, even as sporadic incidents of arson attacks on churches were reported as well as attacks on vehicles in the district.
An orphanage run by Christian missionaries in Khuntpali village, Bargarh district, was set ablaze on Monday night and a woman was burnt alive inside. A paralytic patient was lynched and burnt.
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On Monday, several churches were burnt and rail and road traffic impacted during a VHP-sponsored statewide shutdown to protest the killing Swami Laxmananand Saraswati.
Saraswati was leading a campaign against cow slaughter and religious conversion in the communally sensitive district - which with a population of around 6,00,000, including 1,50,000 Christians, has witnessed numerous clashes between Hindus and Christians in the past.
Hindu groups in the state blamed the Church for the crime and alleged that Christians killed Saraswati because he was opposing religious conversion. Christian organisations have denied these allegations.
Violence Against Minorities Shocking: Congress
Meanwhile, the Congress on Tuesday codemned the continuing violence in Orissa, saying the attack on the minorities was shocking.
"It is shocking. It is a repetition of the incidents invloving the killing of Graham Staines. The government has failed to protect the minorities," Congress Media Department chief M Veerappa Moily was quoted by PTI as saying.
He said allowing VHP leaders like Praveen Togadia in Orissa and his provocative statements have complicated the issue.
He came down heavily on the state government for its indifference to the issue.
"They have dealt with a serious issue in a casual manner. It is the duty of the state government to maintain law and order," he was further quoted as saying.
Vatican Condemns Clashes
The Vatican condemned the attacks, calling for "an end to all bullying" and a return to dialogue.
"It expresses its solidarity with local churches and the religious orders involved, and condemns these actions, which are an affront to dignity, peoples' freedom, and endanger peaceful civil coexistence," a Vatican statement said.
A top body of Indian bishops counted 32 incidents of violence against Christians in Orissa over the past two days. In protest, it said some 25,000 Catholic schools and colleges in India would be closed on Friday.
Troubled History
Orissa is often in the news for clashes between Hindus and Christians.
On Jan 22, 1999, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, 10-year-old Philip and six-year-old Timothy, were burnt alive by Hindu radical mobs in their vehicle in Keonjhar district.
The trouble in Kandhamal had escalated in the early 1990s when the Kui, Kuvi and Kuee groups were added to the Kandhas in the Scheduled Tribes list.
The district has witnessed numerous clashes in the past over attempts of conversion and re-conversion of tribals and Panas by both Christians and Hindus.
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