Catholics demand NIA probe

Two years after the Kandhamal riots that killed over 100 people in Orissa, Catholics along with leaders of Muslim community and film fraternity demanded that the investigation should be handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The demand was made in a press conference held at the Marathi Patrakar Sangh and was attended by the Archbishop of Bombay, Cardinal Oswald Gracias, vice chairman of the minorities commission Abraham Mathai, Maulana Mustaqim Qasmi, president of Jamiat Ulema, Bollywood personality Mahesh Bhatt and Pooja Bhatt and journalist Anto Akkara.

“One by one, the accused have been released and witnesses are being threatened. We do not have faith in the investigations. What happened there was not a spontaneous act,” said Akkara.

Around 400 villages with Christian population purged, over 100 murdered and 296 churches were burned, stated people. When asked why the group took three years to demand an investigation, Mathai said, “We have been waiting to see the progress. But what we have seen is that the institution is biased. We feel that it is not necessary that only a bomb blast should be investigated. People being killed is also terrorism,” said Mathai.