A staffer of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was killed by a mob as fresh violence broke out in Orissa's troubled Kandhamal district, police said Tuesday.
About six to seven unidentified people attacked two CRPF men on Monday evening at a village under Raikia police station area.
While one of them managed to escape unhurt, the other was killed in the attack, said District Superintendent of Police S Praveen Kumar.
"Police recovered the body on Monday night. He has injuries on his torso and head. It appears he was first beaten up by sticks and then killed by a sharp weapon," Kumar said.
The fresh violence is a setback for the state government, which has been claiming that normalcy is slowly returning to the region.
Kandhamal district has been witnessing communal violence since August 23 after the killing of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and four others at his ashram by unidentified gunmen.
In retaliatory violence, thousands of Christian homes and churches have been burnt and at least 36 people killed.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said in New Delhi on Monday that the trouble in Kandhamal was not just a communal problem and there were many other factors compounding the problem.
The district has a long history of ill-feeling and suspicion between Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes on a variety of issues such as forcible occupation of tribal land and jobs being secured on the basis of false caste certificates among others, Patnaik had said.
Our take on it: If the CRPF and the police are not safe, how can the Christians be? And then how can Naveen Patnaik say that situation is getting normal.
