PANCHAYAT SAMITI OFFICE
Raikia village
Over 500 people are cramped inside the panchayat office, guarded by jawans of the Orissa Rapid Action Force. The men stand in the verandah in a huddle, the women and children sit inside.
Ten-year-old Namrata Naik, her face partially burnt, rushes out. “I was sleeping with my father, mother, brother and sister at my village in Raikia on August 25 when they attacked us. We ran out and they ransacked our house and set it on fire,” says Namrata, a class V student of St Catherine Convent School. “I heard a loud noise and my face got burnt. I fell down unconscious,” she says.
As the attackers tossed a crude bomb, her face and part of her arms were burnt. Her family rescued her and took her to the hills, where they hid without food for over two days.
Her family is now worried. “How will I get my daughter married now? The marks on her face will stay all her life. We came to the panchayat office only sometime ago after we heard that the government has opened a shelter here,” says her father, Kunal Naik.
Meanwhile, outside the office compound, a group of men surround our car. “Who are you? Why are you talking to these Christians? What is your name? They killed Swamiji and therefore deserve this treatment,” says one of them.
We drive on only to find the roads partially blocked by trees and boulders at many places. The district administration somehow manages to make a clearing for cars to pass through.

... contd.