BHUBANESHWAR, India: Suspected Hindu hard-liners set an orphanage run by Christian missionaries on fire in eastern India yesterday, killing one nun and seriously injuring a priest, police said.
The attack occurred in Khuntapali, a village in Orissa state, during a strike called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to protest Saturday’s killing of a Hindu religious leader and four others by suspected Communist rebels in another district of the state, Ashok Biswal, superintendent of police, told The Associated Press.
Orissa simmered with tension yesterday with churches attacked, vehicles torched and rail and road traffic affected as thousands demonstrated in several places as part of a statewide shutdown called by the VHP to protest the killing of a leader.
The volatile Kandhamal district — about 340 km from here where Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati, a member of VHP’s central advisory committee, and four other people were killed at his Jalespata ashram Saturday evening after more than 30 suspected Maoist rebels opened fire on them — saw the most trouble.
Though the administration imposed curfew in Baliguda and Phulbani towns in the district, people defied the order when the body of the leader was brought in a procession to his ashram.
