Fear grips remaining 3000 people in relief camps: Orissa

After all the "pushing" by state authorities, still over 3000 people remain in relief camps, sources said.

Unlike the rest thousands who fled to other states while some sought shelter with friends and families, this remainder is reluctant to leave due to the scurrilous threats they have received from Hindu fundamentalists.

The number of people living in the camps has decreased slowly but the 3,100 people in six camps are not willing to leave as they are being told to return only after re-converting to Hinduism, The Hindu quoted Kandhamal District Collector Krishan Kumar, as saying.

Christians are presently put in relief camps at Raikia, Tikabali, K. Naugaon, Mandasar, Mandakia and Tiangia. Violence was sparked on August 23 in the aftermath of the killing of VHP leader Laksmananda Saraswati.

Meanwhile, an independent fact-finding team has urged the state government to maintain the relief camps till normality was restored.

Former Special Rapporteur to the National Human Rights Commission and one of the members of the team, K.R. Venugopal, in a letter said, "there can never be any dignity if people practising a particular religion – here Christianity – are told that they can return to their homes only as Hindus."

"Such threats are unconstitutional and the State has a duty to intervene proactively to put a stop to that and guarantee peaceful residence to the citizens with a right to their religious conviction," Venugoal told G.V. Venugopala Sarma, Secretary in the State government's Revenue and Disaster Management Department.

Last week, Orissa's coalition government crumbled as the ruling BJD snapped ties with "communal" BJP, ending their 11-year-old alliance. Political analysts note that the government's failure to curb violence on Christians has played its role in the parting of ways.