BHUBANESWAR: Tensions are running high in a village in Orissa after a mob of 500 people attacked some villagers
building a church, beat them up and forced them to bow to Hindu deities, police
said.
Police on Wednesday patrolled the streets of Sudsudia
village in Maurbhanj district, about 300 km from
here, to prevent violence after Tuesday's incident.
Villager Baidhar Bindhani,
who converted to Christianity about three years ago, was building a church on
land he owned with the help of other Christians.
A district police official said Hindus of a dozen nearby villages had opposed
the church on the grounds that it was too close to a temple, 200 metres away.
On Tuesday, a mob comprising about 500 people rushed to the church area and
some of them beat up the construction workers. They also forced Bindhani and other Christians to beg forgiveness and bow
their heads before Hindu deities, he said.
In January 1999, a mob of religious fanatics burnt alive Australian missionary
Graham Staines and his two minor sons in a neighbouring district, Keonjhar.