Eleven churches and prayer houses were ransacked and torched in several
areas of Kandhamal district in Orissa in the early hours on Thursday.
Seven churches and prayer houses were attacked and set afire in Gandapadar,
Badahapanga, Bhandarapada, Pisupadar, Masapadar, Minia and Adigara under
Phulbani Sadar police station area, police said.
Rev Basant Diggal alleged that he was assaulted and his motorcycle damaged by a
group of miscreants in Minia area where vandals went on rampage causing damage
to another church.
Similar incidents of ransacking and burning of three more churches and prayer
houses took place in Bakingia, Tiangia and Kotaguda, while miscreants triggered
a minor blast at another place of worship, police said.
Curfew was relaxed since Wednesday night till 9 am on Thursday in four towns of
Baliguda, Daringibadi, Brahmanigaon and Phulbani to enable people to buy
essential goods and proceed to work places, District Collector Bhabagrahi
Mohapatra said.
Earlier, paramilitary troopers marched through Orissa's riot hit areas. The
district administration was talking to people and had constituted a peace
committee in the area.
The government on Wednesday rushed two senior bureaucrats, Arabinda Behera and
Ashok Meena, both ex-district collectors of Kandhmal, besides moving in three
companies of CRPF stationed at Sambalpur, Rayagada and Rourkela to the troubled
region.
Also pressed into action were the SPs of neighbouring Gajapati and Boudh
districts, along with 20 other police officers.
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