Other States - Orissa

No option but to order firing: SP

BRAHMANIGAON (KANDHAMAL DIST): Residents of this small village have realised how communal elements from outside destroyed their peace and property.

On December 24, communal clash erupted in the village over erection of a decorative arch for Christmas. It was followed by an attack on VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati at Dasingbadi. Despite curfew, violence erupted again in the village on Thursday.

The police opened fired to check large-scale arson by armed mob that entered the village from outside. Four persons fell to the bullets. The body of one of the victims was still laying on the road on Friday. Miscreants took away three other persons who suffered bullet wounds when they escaped into the nearby hills.

Gajapati SP Amikendranath Sinha, who led the police force to the village on Thursday, said that miscreants were armed with country-made guns as well as automatic weapons. A constable standing near the SP was injured by the bullet fired by the miscreants.

They were targeting the homes and properties of a particular community, he alleged, and added that he had to order firing as there was no other way to check organised attackers.

Over 100 houses of Oriya Street were torched on Thursday. Shops of a particular community were identified and burnt down by the miscreants, said Mahabahu Sahu, whose photo studio was gutted.

The police cordoned off the Christian-dominated area in the village as a precautionary measure. In contrast, tribal villages like Gadamaha, Kutlarigam, Kirman, Tekangia and Mandipanka located within seven km from Brahmanigaon showed no signs of communal tension though these villages had sizeable Christian population.

Pradhan Mallik of Gadamaha said they could prevent communal tension as tribals did not allow fundamentalist elements interfere in their village affairs.

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