Stray incident of violence mars Christmas in Kandhamal

A stray incident marred the Christmas celebrations in Orissa's communally sensitive Kandhamal district when unidentified miscreants set afire the car of a missionary on Saturday night, police said.

The car of Baptist missionary Suranjan Nayak was set afire in the premises of the Kandhamal district hospital but no one was injured, inspector SC Panda of the Phulbani town police station said.

Police were rushed to the location soon after the incident and efforts were on to nab the culprits, he said.

Nayak, whose wife works as a nurse at the hospital, had gone to his native place in Raikia area of the district when the incident took place.

Barring this incident, believed to have been orchestrated by some mischief mongers, Christmas celebrations in tribal-dominated Kandhamal remained peaceful as people joined the revelry with joy and enthusiasm, police said.

Kandhamal had witnessed riots at Christmas time in 2007 and again after the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmanananda Saraswati in August 2008.

Elaborate security arrangements had been made to prevent any incident this time.

After performing midnight mass at different churches, Christians thronged their places of worship in colourful attire on Saturday morning as people from all communities joined in the celebration.