Dead body found in Orissa's Raikia region

Raikia/Bhubaneshwar, Sept 29 : A dead body was found floating in a river near Raikia region of Orissa on Monday, just two days after communal clashes in riot hit Kandhamal District of the State.

According to reports, the body is allegedly of a Christian man who had gone missing after the communal clashes, which broke out on Friday.

Though no fresh incidents of violence have been reported from the Kandhamal, situation continues to be tense and security forces have been deployed to restore peace in the area.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik gave assurance of restoring normalcy in the region and said the forces were working towards maintaining law and order in the region.

"The forces that are in Kandhamal district, making all efforts to keep the situation under control, to see that law and order is maintained and that peace and calm is maintained in the district," he said.

Meanwhile, locals living in Raikia region of the State have been asked to put up red colored flags on top of their houses to identify themselves as Hindus.

The locals said that it has been made mandatory for every Hindu to put these flags as symbol of their religious faith.

"We have put red colored flags on top of our houses to show that we are Hindus. Here it is a rule all Hindus have to put these flags on top of their houses to identify themselves," said Manas Pati, a resident.

The recent spate of violence in a string of attacks on Christians in three states has left at least 20 people dead and dozens of religious places, mostly churches and Christian prayer halls, damaged.

Many Hindu nationalists say they are determined to fight Christian missionaries accusing them of what they call ' forcibly converting' Hindus to Christianity.

Meanwhile, Christian missionaries say lower-caste Hindus convert willingly to escape discrimination of the caste-system.

Communal violence has spread out of Kandhamal to Karnataka as well where at least 20 churches have been burnt by Hindu mobs in the past ten days.

The Central Government in New Delhi has asked the state governments of Orissa and Karnataka to do more to stop religious violence.

ANI