Vatican condemns as 6 killed in India religious riots

By Jatindra Dash

BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) - Six people were killed when Hindu and Christian mobs clashed on Tuesday in eastern India, where dozens of churches have been vandalised in spiralling religious violence.

Authorities imposed a curfew in nine towns of Orissa's rural Kandhamal district in an effort to end two days of violence in which a Christian orphanage was also torched by suspected Hindu mobs angry over the murder of their leader.

Orissa officials said at least four people, including a woman, were killed in Kandhamal's Barakhama village when Hindus and Christians clashed and shot at each other.

"Police broke up the two groups and brought the situation under control," said Satyabrata Sahoo, a top administrative official said.

Two more bodies were found in a separate village in the district late on Tuesday, both killed a day earlier, Kishan Kumar, administrative head of Kandhamal district said.

The deaths took the toll from two days of violence to eight, also including two people burned to death inside houses torched by Hindu crowds. More than a dozen churches have been damaged.

Violence erupted after armed men killed a Hindu leader linked to the main opposition Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and four others last week, an attack Hindus blamed on Christians.

The leader had been heading a local campaign to reconvert Hindus and tribal people from Christianity.