Police deployed to stop Christian-Hindu violence in India

BHUBANESWAR (AFP) - Hundreds of police were deployed in eastern India on Thursday to stop fresh clashes between Hindus and Christians after churches were attacked and a man killed in Christmas Day attacks.
“Enough police both from the state and the central reserve police force have been deployed in the affected towns and villages... to maintain order. The situation is under control,” Orissa state chief minister Naveen Patnaik said.
Some 800 police were deployed and more were on their way to the violence-hit area in Kandhamal district, 300km southwest of the state capital Bhubaneswar, officials said.
A curfew was also imposed Wednesday after Hindus, backed by the hard-line Vishwa Hindu Parishad or World Hindu Council, torched six churches — mostly mud and thatch structures — and ransacked another four on Christmas night in violence that left one man dead and 30 injured.
Despite the curfew, more scuffles and stone-throwing broke out between Hindus and Christians late Wednesday and some fences surrounding churches and temples were torn down, police said, but no injuries were reported.
Christian missionaries have long found converts among India’s neglected tribal communities or “untouchable” Hindus — known as Dalits — who still face huge discrimination. Some missionaries talk of “liberating” low-caste Hindus.
In Kandhamal, the majority of Christian converts are Dalits.
Sectarian clashes erupt periodically in the billion-plus country of multiple faiths, where 2.3pc are practising Christians. Rising tensions have prompted several Indian state governments to enact anti-conversion laws.
A Hindu man is serving a life sentence for burning alive an Australian Christian missionary and his two sons as well as a Catholic priest in Orissa in 1999.
Some reports said the latest violence began after a Hindu leader who had campaigned against so-called “forced” conversions of low-caste Hindus to Christianity was attacked on Christmas Eve.