According to media reports thirty armed Naxals ambushed the Ban Basi Kalyan ashram for girls at Jalespata ashram, near Tumudibandh some 340 km from Bhubaneswar, in Kandhamal District of Orissa when Janmashtami celebrations were taking place on Saturday evening. The attack killed four people, including the senior VHP leader Swami Lashmananda Saraswat, the chief of the Ashram. Other dead were prominent VHP leaders, Arupananda, Chinmayananda and Mata Bhaktimayee. Saraswati has served tribes, mainly Kandhs, in the region. His main ashram is located at Chakapad in the same district.
The Naxals threw grenades and opened indiscriminate firing at the ashram. Tension broke out at some places in the tribal-dominated Kandhmal after the attack on the ashram and roads leading to Tumudibandh were sealed, police said that steps were being taken to prevent any communal flare-up in the district. Kandhamal, which witnessed violence during Christmas in December last year, has long been a communal flash point. In January this year too, violence had erupted after Christian missionaries were attacked by Hindu groups. Kandhamal district has a population of around 600,000 including 150,000 Christians.The district has been put on high alert and additional police forces, including the CRPF, have been rushed in to keep stock of the situation. Section 144 imposed in entire Kandhamal district.The whole state of Orissa has been put on high alert.
In a fallout of the Kandhamal incident, a prayer house was burnt in Tentulieadapada area of neighboring Sundargarh district on Sunday, a van of some Catholic nuns was destroyed, and the sisters were injured.
The All India Christian Council condemned the killing of VHP leader. Dr. Sam Paul, AICC National Secretary of Public Affairs, said, "The Christian community in India abhors violence, condemns all acts of terrorism, and opposes groups of people taking the law into their own hands."
VHP has called for 12-hour Orissa bandh on Monday to protest the killings.
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