Pope Benedict XVI condemned anti-Christian violence in India, where at least 11 people were killed in three days of attacks by Hindu mobs. Police on Wednesday were ordered to shoot rioters on sight. During his weekly audience at the Vatican, Benedict said he was "profoundly saddened" by news of the violence against Christian communities in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. "I firmly condemn any attack on human life," Benedict said. "I express spiritual closeness and solidarity to the brothers and sisters in faith who are being so harshly tested." The Pope said he had learnt “with great sorrow the information concerning the violence against the Christian community which broke out “after the reprehensible assassination of the Hindu leader, Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.” Police have blamed the death of the Hindu leader on Maoist guerrillas. However, hardline Hindus accuse minority Christians of responsibility for the killings in Kandhamal, southwest of the state capital Bhubaneswar. The violence began as Hindu hard-liners set ablaze a Christian orphanage early Monday, killing a woman who worked as a lay teacher and seriously injuring a priest. Four people were killed later that day, including two burned alive when rioters set fire to thatched huts. Six more people were killed Tuesday and Wednesday in villages across the state, despite a curfew imposed by police. One was doused with kerosene and burned to death by a mob, another died when protesters set fire to a house, while four were killed in an exchange of gunfire between the rival groups. It is not clear if the latest dead were Christians or Hindus. Saraswati had campaigned against what he branded as the “forced” conversion of low-caste Hindus to Christianity. Radical Hindus accuse Christian missionaries of converting tribals and Dalits -- the name adopted by “untouchables,” who still face discrimination from the higher castes – through pressure or lures such as free education.
