ORISSA, INDIA, August 27, 2008: The remote east Indian state of Orissa — historically a tinderbox of Hindu-Christian tensions — erupted in violence this week after gunmen killed a Hindu leader and mobs burned churches in retaliation.
Police have been deployed in the state in the past to quell protests and violence between religious groups. Four days of communal clashes left at least nine people dead. Authorities have imposed a curfew and ordered security forces to shoot violators on sight. The Hindu leader, Laxmananda Saraswati, and four others were killed Saturday in the Kandhamal district when up to 30 gunmen barged into a Hindu school and opened fire, Orissa’s chief minister’s office said. Authorities have not definitively determined who killed Saraswati, but they detained five Christian people after the incident, said Sukanta Panda, spokesman for the chief minister.
The government also said the killings may have been the work of Maoist rebels, but some Hindus blamed the Christian minority. Protesters took to the streets in anger, rampaging through predominantly Christian neighborhoods, ransacking shops and torching houses. They chopped down trees to block roads, making it difficult for police to reach trouble spots. Christian residents fought back. By Wednesday an eerie calm prevailed, but both Hindu and Christian leaders said they were bracing for the worst.