Dharna in front of the Orissa House
Christians Demand CBI Probe into the killing of Swamy
Union Minister prevented
The church network - including the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, the Evangelical Fellowship of India and the National Council of Churches in India - has written a letter to all Christian organisations in the country on the issue.
"Communal organisations have taken the law into their hands in Orissa. What is at stake is not only the freedom of conscience of a minority community but India's secular democracy," the letter said.
"The destructive and divisive communal forces have to be stopped. We want this message to go across to people, that is why we are closing our educational institutions in deep sorrow and anguish. We hope parents become aware of the implications of the incidents in Orissa," it added.
The All India Christian Council (AICC) has also planned a sit-in outside the Orissa House in the capital Friday. "The central government has failed to check violence in Orissa. It is only after five days of violence and atrocities on Christians that extra forces are being rushed," AICC Secretary Public Affairs Sam Paul told.
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Christian groups seek CBI enquiry into the killing of the VHP leader and the deployment of army in Kandhamal
New Delhi (PTI): A group of Christian organisations on Thursday demanded that a CBI enquiry should be ordered into the murder of VHP leader and the ensuing violence to trace the guilty.
The organisations also asked the Union Government "to move its troops into affected blocks of Kandhamal district where the local police and RAF have miserably failed." John Dayal, member of National Integration Council, his letter to Sonia Gandhi on behalf of Christian organisations demanded that the "Government must rebuild the houses (which were damaged in violence) and also rebuild every single church that has been destroyed," Dayal said in the letter.
Dayal alleged that the BJD-BJP coalition government in Orissa "failed" in bringing a halt to the killing of Christians in the state.
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The situation in Orissa was so volatile that Minister of State for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal and other Congress leaders, who arrived here to visit riot hit areas, were told by the state government that they could not do so and returned to New Delhi.
Police said trouble had spread to new areas, including the western district of Bolangir and the coastal district of Kendrapada.
No details were available but officials said curfew had been clamped in Kendrapada town and security intensified in Bolangir.
There have been stray incidents of violence in Kandhamal. We have also received reports of people burning a church in the district of Bolangir," said Director General of Police Gopal Chandra Nanda, adding that more than 3,000 policemen had been deployed.
We are hopeful normalcy would return in a week, Nanda told IANS while describing the situation as "under control".
Police have registered at least 70 cases in different police stations related to the communal violence and 54 people have been arrested, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik informed the state assembly.
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