BJP, RSS observe 9th death anniversary of Laxamananda

Kandhamal district unit of BJP and RSS today asked Odisha government to make public the reports of judicial commissions on communal riots which took place following the killing of VHP leader Swami Laxmananda Saraswati in 2008.
The activists of the BJP and RSS made the demand at a meeting marking the 9th death anniversary of the holy man, who was killed along with his four associates on August 23, 2008 following which a large scale communal violence broke out in Kandhamal.
The speakers at the meeting strongly criticised the BJD government for not tabling the reports of two judicial commissions which were set up to probe the communal riots which took place in 2007 prior to Laxmananada's killing and another in 2008 after the death of the VHP leader.

Soon after the killings, riots had broke out in and outside Kandhamal in which 48 people were killed, about 220 places of worship damaged and above 4000 houses burnt rendering more than 5,000 families home less.
Subsiquently, seven people were arrested and sentenced by the court on the charges of conspiracy and killing Laxmananada.