Less than two months after a Hindu mob killed a Christian missionary from Australia and his two young sons here in the eastern state of Orissa, Hindus and Christians clashed in a village this week, and 157 of the 250 Christian homes were burned down, state officials say. The officials said they presumed that Hindus set the fires on Tuesday, but have no solid evidence. Thirteen people were wounded, three by gunfire, and the police have arrested more than 40 people, officials said. The violence is part of a growing number of attacks on Christians in India in the last year. Church officials and opposition political parties say the problem has worsened since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party became the head of a national coalition Government a year ago.
Party leaders say they oppose the violence.
It is not clear who was responsible for the violence in Orissa, which is governed by the Congress Party. D.P. Wadhwa, the Indian Supreme Court Justice who was named by the Government to head an inquiry into the Staines killings, harshly criticized the central Government for failing to provide resources to investigate. The commission of inquiry, which was set up six weeks ago, is due to issue its findings in two weeks but has yet to field a team of independent investigators or to be given functional offices to work from. The state police blamed a mob that they said was led by a man from the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu nationalist youth group that belongs to the same family of Hindu nationalist organizations as the Bharatiya Janata Party. Leaders of the Bajrang Dal denied involvement, and said the violence was a backlash against what they called the Christians' deceitful efforts to convert impoverished, illiterate Indians.