BHUBANESWAR, India: Hindu mobs ransacked a church and clashed with Christian villagers in eastern India yesterday, police said, as authorities struggled to control spiraling religious violence in the region. Hindu mobs have destroyed more than a dozen churches and attacked Christians in eastern Orissa state this week after the murder of a Hindu leader in Kandhamal district, a tribal area where Christian missionaries have been active for years.
Shoot-on-sight orders and curfews to control violence have so far failed to end clashes that have killed at least 11 people. Police deployed more than 3,000 personnel in the streets yesterday but they could not stop the ransacking of at least one church. Local media said as many as four churches were attacked.
“Police are marching in several areas now,” Orissa police chief Gopal Chandra Nanda said.
Television pictures showed mobs armed with iron rods putting up roadblocks and others attacking churches. Other mobs armed with bows and arrows and axes have attacked Christian homes, dragging out women and children.
Hundreds have fled to forests and nearby hills, officials said. “Moments after we passed by a Christian village, people set it on fire and everything was over within minutes,” a senior police officer said from Kandhamal, the worst-hit district.
The Italian government said yesterday the country’s Foreign Ministry would summon India’s ambassador to demand “incisive action” to prevent further attacks against Christians.
A statement issued after a Cabinet meeting in Rome also said Italy would ask France, the current EU president, to take up the issue of attacks against Christians at a future meeting of foreign ministers. Pope Benedict has strongly condemned the violence against Christians.
In New Delhi, Christian leaders said several thousand Christian educational institutions would shut down today to protest the violence.
India’s constitution is secular, but most of its billion-plus citizens are Hindu.
