The BJP's official line is that this is a law-and-order problem and the Orissa Government is to blame. Also, naming the Sangh Parivar in connection with the crime is part of a conspiracy to defame the Centre and the Sangh Parivar. However, there are growing voices of dissent within both the party and the coalition.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today demanded the resignation of Union Home Minister L K Advani and Jayalalitha called the culprits ``terrorists'' who should be hunted down just like their counterparts in ``Kashmir and the North-East.'' Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister reiterated his hard line by calling for an emergency meeting of the National Development Council todiscuss and check the attacks against minorities.

Within the BJP, too, there is disagreement. While party spokesman J P Mathur denied that the Sangh Parivar had any role to play, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana sent a strongly worded letter to party chief Kushabhau Thakre seeking to ``atone'' for recent attacks on Christians.

Khurana, who had attacked the Sangh Parivar at the party's national executive in Bangalore, this time went on the offensive.

Earlier, speaking to news persons in Calcutta today, Mamata said her party would be ``forced to withdraw support from the BJP-led coalition Government at the Centre if the attacks on the minorities are not checked forthwith.''

She said the Union Home Minister should resign owning responsibility over ``failure of the intelligence which could not inform the Government in time.''

She said her party had offered support to the Vajpayee Government for political stability but that did not mean that the Trinamool would tolerate violence onminorities. She said the democratic and secular values must be protected at all cost. Reiterating her party's stand on the issue of ban on the fundamentalist organisations, she said the Government should ban the organisations fanning communal disaffection in the country.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu too issued a veiled warning saying his Telugu Desam Party's support to the Centre was `only conditional and could be withdrawn anytime'.

He also demanded immediate convening of the National Development Council (NDC) meeting to put an end to `uncivilised attacks' on minorities.

A visibly annoyed Naidu told reporters here that he had spoken to Prime Minister Vajpayee earlier in the day and put across his demand for convening the NDC meeting in the `next two or three days' to arrive at a political consensus on measures to check the `disturbing trend which was affecting the secular fabric of the country'.

He, however, hastened to add that he was not setting any conditions for continuing thesupport. ``The Centre is not surviving solely on my support. Politics is not important for me. I am trying for a national consensus on how to put an end to these uncivilised incidents.''

Meanwhile, in a letter to the Prime Minister, he said the time had come for all political parties to `think and act together' to ensure that the country's `image and respect did not suffer any adverse effect internationally'.

Even AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha today demanded ruthless action to expose and punish the small group of `terrorists who are seeking to destroy the very essence of India' by killing the Australian missionary and his two sons.

In a statement condemning the incident, AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha said these terrorists needed to be given the same medicine administered to their kind in Kashmir and the North-East and `hunted down'. `These anti-national forces must not be allowed to humiliate India internationally'.

Calling for ruthless action combined with intelligent use of the mass media to instillafresh a moderate culture deep in the minds and hearts of the people, Jayalalitha said such people of whatever faith could only be called `anti-Indian'.