3 killed in Hindu, Christian violence in eastern India
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Police in eastern India killed at least three people while trying to quell the continuing violence between hard-line Hindus and Christians, officials said Friday.
Police opened fire Thursday on a mob of Hindus who torched a police station in the eastern state of Orissa, complaining of a lack of protection after Christians set fire to several Hindu homes, the state's chief minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters Friday. Three people were killed, he said.
The Christians were retaliating after about 19 small churches were razed in violence that broke out on Christmas Eve when long-standing tensions between the Hindu majority and the small Christian community erupted over conversions to Christianity.