BHUBANESWAR, Sept 14: Security forces killed two Hindu rioters in eastern India where violence between Hindus and Christians claimed 18 lives last month, police said on Sunday.

Tensions between the two communities in Orissa state have simmered for weeks over alleged forced conversions of Hindus by the minority Christian community.

Late on Saturday, paramilitary troops in the troubled Kandhamal district – the focus of the recent religious violence – clashed with about 50 Hindus.

The Hindus, who were trying to attack a church and the nearby house of a Christian villager, fired on the troops, injuring one of them, police said.

Two rioters were killed and 11 injured when the troops retaliated, Orissa police chief Gopal Nanda said on Sunday.

Hindu-Christian clashes erupt periodically in India, where 2.3 per cent of the country’s population of more than 1.1 billion are Christians.

Hardline Hindus accuse missionaries of ‘bribing’ poor tribals and low-caste Hindus, who often face strong discrimination, to convert to Christianity by offering free education and healthcare.

Thousands of people, mainly Christians, are still living in government camps or in the surrounding jungles following the torching of their homes.

In southern Karnataka state, which is governed by the Hindu nationalist party, nine churches were allegedly ransacked on Sunday by Hindu activists, a spokesman for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in New Delhi. At least eight people, including two pastors were injured, police said.

“The prime minister asked the state chief minister to ensure communal harmony at all costs,” Singh’s spokesman quoted him as saying.—AFP