NEW DELHI, Sept 8: A national body of bishops on Monday said churches held services in India’s Orissa state for the first time since anti-Christian riots swept the region last month.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India said the situation was slowly returning to normal but more facilities were needed at makeshift camps where thousands of Christians are sheltering under police guard in the eastern state.

“On Sunday, the usual church services were conducted in (state capital) Bhubaneshwar and elsewhere in Orissa without any serious disturbance,” the Conference said.

“But the relief camps need more facilities and protection for the people who are still in the grip of fear and loss,” Conference spokesman Babu Joseph said in New Delhi.

Sixteen people were killed and 13,000 fled to the camps after anti-Christian riots erupted following the August 23 murder of a popular Hindu leader by unknown gunmen in Orissa’s Kandhamal district.

Thousands of others, mostly Christians, are sheltering in forests and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference said people still lived in fear in the region.

“In some villages, people continue to live under threat. They think they could be attacked any time. People of Barakhamba (one of the affected areas) said they wanted to relocate themselves entirely,” the spokesman said.

Thousands of Christians meanwhile in India’s northeastern state of Meghalaya took to the streets in protest against the violence in Orissa, witnesses said.

“We condemn the atrocities committed against our brethrens in Orissa,” said Hilarius Lamare, vicar-general of Meghalaya’s influential Roman Catholic church.

“The (Indian) prime minister must also institute a probe into the attacks on Christians and churches in Orissa,” Lamare said as scores of Roman Catholic priests joined the street protest in state capital Shillong.

“This is not the first time that such attacks against minorities have occurred in Orissa,” added B. Dunai, of the India Fellowship of Charismatic Churches.

A similar protest was also held on Monday in Mizoram, India’s only Christian-majority state.Premier Manmohan Singh has threatened to use force to put down the attacks in Orissa and offered aid to the victims of the anti-Christian clashes, India’s deadliest in recent years.

Christians make up 2.3 per cent of India’s billion-plus population.

Hindu fundamentalists accuse missionaries of luring poor tribal people and low-caste Hindus to convert to Christianity by offering free education and healthcare.—AFP