By Jatindra Dash, IANS
Bhubaneswar : As riots continued in Orissa’s Kandhamal district Wednesday despite curfew orders and 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.
Patnaik reviewed the situation at state capital Bhubaneswar and asked two IAS officers of commissioner rank, Arabinda Behera and Ashok Meena, to rush to the affected areas.
Although Patnaik told reporters that things are under control, and despite indefinite curfew orders, fresh communal violence was reported Wednesday with clashes in various places. A police station, a church and a former MP’s house were attacked.
According to Kandhamal district police chief Narasimha Bhol, hundreds of people ransacked Firingia police station Wednesday afternoon.
“I cannot say if anybody has been injured,” Bhol told IANS over the telephone.
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.
The state government has deputed about 700 more policemen and two companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and one company of the Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) to the region to bring the situation under control, a home department official told IANS. About 1,000 policemen are already posted in the district.
Hundreds of tribals attacked a church at Sarsalanda village under Sadar police station, about 20 km from the district headquarters town Phulbani. A mob also vented their ire on the home of former MP Sribatsa Digal in Line Pada at Phulbani, an official of the district intelligence bureau said.
Besides, there were reports of communal clashes from half a dozen places but the details were awaited due to “disruption of communication”, the official told IANS.
Many of the incidents occurred overnight despite curfew being imposed in the troubled areas of Baliguda, Daringbadi and Brahmani Gaon as well as at Phulbani.
Curfew was clamped Christmas eve night after one person was allegedly killed and over a dozen injured in clashes between Hindus and Christians in the wake of a shutdown called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to protest an attack on a Hindu leader.
The four-hour shutdown was to protest an attack Monday on the vehicle of local Hindu leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati near Daringbadi when he was on his way to perform a yagna there.
Saraswati and a person accompanying him were injured and their vehicle partially damaged, district police chief Narasimha Bhol, who is camping in the area, told IANS.
The trouble had started Monday morning in the Christian-majority Brahmanigaon village, 150 km from the district headquarters Phulbani, over Christmas celebrations.
While the Christian community wanted to celebrate the day in a grand way, the local Hindus opposed the plan, Bhol said.
This led to clashes between the Hindu and Christian groups. And the attack on Saraswati led to escalation in the violence.
Besides the VHP, the local Kui tribal community had also given a shutdown call demanding immediate solution to their problems. The clashes took place mostly when VHP supporters attacked shops in various places.
At least a dozen churches and a dozen of vehicles including two police vehicles were set on fire. Besides, the protestors attacked the house of elder brother of state steel and mines minister Padmanav Behera and torched one of his vehicles Tuesday, police sources said.
The government has deputed the district superintendents of the neighbouring three districts – Gajapati, Boudh and Ganjam – to the spot, a senior police official in Bhubaneswar said.
The district, earlier called Phulbani, is considered one of the most communally sensitive regions in the state with numerous clashes reported between Hindus and Christians in the past.