(AKI) - Officials on Tuesday imposed a curfew in parts of the eastern Indian state of Orissa following deadly riots by suspected Hindu mobs that burned five Christians alive, police said.
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Hundreds of police were deployed in three towns in Orissa's rural Kandhamal district to end two days of violence in which suspected Hindu extremists set fire to an orphanage run by Christian missionaries, burning a woman to death. Several children were also injured in the attack on the orphanage.
Four other Christians also died inside buildings torched by suspected Hindu extremists in violence that erupted after the killing on Saturday of one of their leaders, Swami Laxamanananda Saraswati.
Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini condemned the "grave an inexcusable acts of violence" on behalf of the Italian government.
Saraswati's supporters suspect Christians were responsible, but the police believe he was killed by Maoist rebels. Saraswati had been heading a local campaign to reconvert Hindus and tribal people from Christianity. |