BHUBANESWAR, India (UCAN) -- Christians in Orissa lack security, Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi said after visiting victims of recent violence in this eastern Indian state.

The state administration needs to provide adequate "security to the Christian community and protect their lives and properties," the cardinal asserted in Bhubaneswar, the state capital, 1,745 kilometers southeast of New Delhi.

Cardinal Toppo, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, arrived in Bhubaneswar on Jan. 2 and was planning to visit Kandhamal district, where at least five people were killed in five days of violence that began on Christmas Eve day. The attackers torched some 50 churches and 400 houses of Christians.

A Church source told UCA News the administration denied the cardinal and his team permission to visit the tribal-dominated district, citing security concerns. Other Christian teams were also blocked from visiting the area, also because of security concerns. Even during the first week of January, the administration said certain areas in the district continued to be tense.

The cardinal met Christian riot victims at the archbishop's house of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar archdiocese, which covers the violence-affected area. The cardinal also met several Church leaders of the state.

"It is a great concern for us that the Christian community in Kandhamal are still not safe," the cardinal told UCA News after he met the riot victims. He said the Church has expressed its concern to the administration.

Francis George, a parliamentarian who visited the state and the archbishop's house, agreed with the cardinal. George told UCA News on Jan. 5 that the state government's inability to "bring back normalcy even after 10 days" shows the administration has failed to protect the "life and property" of Christians.

He termed it a "serious concern" that the Hindu radicals apparently planned these attacks well in advance, but the administration did not try to contain the violence.

Some people from Kandhamal district also said they have lost confidence in the administration.

Teresian Carmelite Sister Zerina, principal of Carmel English Medium School in the district headquarters of Phulbani, told UCA News on Jan. 5 that tension continues in her area.

During the recent violence, armed people attacked her school after breaking open its gate. They destroyed the school bus and smashed windows of the school building. "It will take some days to reopen the school," the nun said.

Social worker Prasana Bishoyi, who visited the archbishop's house, told UCA News the attack made it hard for him "to believe that India is a secular state." He said: "We are under threat. We cannot even move freely or go the church for prayer."

Duyadhanu Mallick, leader of a lay Catholic forum in Srasalanda village, also said his people have lost confidence in the police. Just before the attack on their church, the police told Catholics guarding the church to disperse and assured them that nothing would happen, he told UCA News.

"When our village people went back to their houses," the Hindu extremists "came and destroyed our church," recounted Mallick, who also visited the archbishop's house. "We still feel insecure about our life and property," he said.

Some other visitors to the archbishop's house charged the attacks happened with police connivance. A young man said the attackers also looted Christian villages.

Communist leader Sitaram Yechury met Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Jan. 3 and sought security for Christians. He also wanted an independent inquiry into the violence.

The bishops' conference also demanded a federal inquiry into the violence and compensation for the Christian community in memorandums it submitted to federal leaders starting a day after the violence began.

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