By Jatindra Dash BHUBANESWAR, India, Sept 24 (Reuters) - One person was killed and a dozen wounded in eastern India on Wednesday when police opened fire on a Hindu mob demanding the release of their leaders held for attacks on Christians in India, officials said. At least 20 people have died in religious clashes over the past month as Hindu mobs burnt down dozens of churches in three Indian states and attacked Christian villagers. The attacks in India have been condemned by Pope Benedict and Roman Catholic bishops have urged the European Union to treat persecution of Christians as a humanitarian emergency. But violence has continued in a few Indian states. On Wednesday, a 1,000-strong mob surrounded a police station in Orissa's Kandhamal district, demanding the release of Hindu leaders detained on charges of rioting. "We used batons after they pelted stones," Gopal Chandra Nanda, Orissa's police chief told Reuters. When warnings and batons did not work, police opened fire to disperse the mob, killing one villager. Thousands of Christians have already taken shelter in makeshift government camps in the state, after Hindu mobs torched their homes and damaged churches last month to protest the killing of a Hindu leader. India does not have a long history of attacks on Christians, but intolerance has risen in the past two decades with a revival in Hindu nationalism. Hindu zealots say they are determined to fight Christian missionaries they accuse of converting poor Indians. Christians say lower-caste Hindus convert willingly to escape discrimination. In the southern state of Karnataka, at least 20 churches have been burnt by Hindu mobs in the past 10 days and authorities said they were still trying to restore order in some areas. The central government in New Delhi has asked the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party state government to do more to stop religious violence. "The state government needs to do more and arrest all those responsible for the attacks," M.L. Kumawat, a senior government official, told reporters after visiting the coastal city of Mangalore. Authorities said they were deploying more troops outside churches. (Writing by Bappa Majumdar; Editing by Simon Denyer and Paul Tait)
India's public sector bank employees shout during a two-day strike in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad September 24, 2008. Bank unions representing about 900,000 employees of 26 government-owned banks have ...
