Orissa: “Maoist” threats against Hindu radicals raise Christian fears
On Saturday, posters covered the walls of the city hospital, ostensibly signed by the Indian Communist Party-Maoist, making threats against activists of the Hindu nationalist group. Two days earlier, bombs were hurled against a store owned by a well-known Hindu merchant, Nageswar Prusty.
The two events have led police to investigate Maoist extremists. However, they have not ruled out the possibility that bombs and posters are the work of people bent on raising tensions in the area.
Police became suspicious because the two episodes have occurred so close to Christmas. They expressed concern because the current situation is similar to what led to anti-Christian pogroms in August 2008. At that time, Maoist extremists assassinated Hindu leader Swami Laxamananda Saraswati, unleashing a wave of violence against Christians, unjustly blamed for the crime.
Investigators’ suspicions are confirmed by an odd occurrence. Following the bomb attack last Thursday, police kept sensitive areas of the town under close surveillance. In reaction to police failure to capture the perpetrators of the attack, merchants staged a bandh or shutdown as a form of protest. Yet posters were plastered on the walls of the hospitals on that same day when police was on maximum alert and streets were tense.
“The appearance of Maoist posters is only propaganda,” a local source to AsiaNews, “and is more likely the work of the mostly Hindu merchants. The whole area is under the control of security forces. How could any Maoist put a poster?”
Many rumours are also whirling around in relation to the bombs of 10 December. A town resident who asked to remain anonymous said, “Nageswar Prusty, the owner of store, was accused by the police of being one of the main instigators of anti-Christian violence and was arrested for that. Then comes the bomb against his store. To me it seems to be an inside job designed to create tensions and agitation before Christmas.”
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