More action from world larest sham democracy. After facist hindus killed coutless muslims in gujrat & else where they’re turning to Christians.
Hindu-Christian clashes kill 8 in eastern India
Hindu-Christian clashes kill 8 in eastern India, officials say
Staff
AP News
Aug 26, 2008 12:41 EST
Christians clashed with Hindu mobs who attacked churches, and eight people died in the violence in an eastern region known for deadly religious fighting.
Police imposed a curfew in the Kandhamal district of Orissa state after overnight attacks by hardline Hindus to avenge the killing of one of their leaders, whose death they blamed on Christian militants.
Two of those killed in the violence that began late Monday were burned alive inside thatched huts. Satyabrata Sahoo, a top state official, would not say if the dead were Hindus or Christians.
Sahoo said the number of dead could rise. Rioters have blocked roads and police were struggling to reach some remote areas.
The violence comes after Hindu hard-liners set ablaze a Christian orphanage early Monday, killing a 21-year-old woman who was teaching children to use computers and seriously injuring a priest. The Vatican condemned the attack as “a sin against God and humanity.”
The latest violence was set off when unidentified assailants killed a Hindu religious leader, Swami Laxmmananada Saraswati, and four others. Police blamed Maoist rebels, but Subhash Chauhan, a World Hindu Organization leader, accused “Christian militants” in the death.
Relations among India’s 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 — are usually peaceful.
However, Orissa has a long history of Hindu-Christian clashes, usually sparked by Hindu suspicions over missionary work.
Thousands of poor and lower caste Hindus have converted to other religions, including Christianity, often in an attempt to escape the rigid confines of Hinduism’s complex caste system.
That has long embittered Hindu groups who say Christian missionaries try to lure the poor and those on the lowest rungs away with promises of money and jobs. Churches deny that the converts were pressured or bribed.
Last year, four people were killed and nearly 20 churches destroyed in similar clashes in Orissa. 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.