Violence Continues in Orissa

(16 Sep 08 - RV) Hundreds of armed attackers stormed a police station today in the eastern Indian state of Orissa, killing one police officer and setting fire to two police vehicles.

Orissa has been wracked by weeks of Hindu-Christian tensions following the killing of a Hindu religious leader by Maoists last month. So far 24 people have been killed in the violence, more than 20 Christian homes and a prayer hall burned, and some 20,000 people forced to flee their homes.

Archbishop Raphael Cheenath, who is in Orissa, told us that Christians who have remained in the area are being forced to convert to Hinduism while religious institutes close down...