Minority forum welcomes Panda's arrest

Welcoming arrest of Odisha's top Maoist leader Sabyasachi Panda, the Odisha Minority Forum today held him responsible for the suffering of minorities in the communal riot in Kandhamal in 2008.
"We welcome the arrest of Sabyasachi Panda who was allegedly instrumental in the murder of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati that ultimately triggered the communal violence against the innocent minorities especially in Kandhamal in 2008," OMF president Sasmit Patra said in a statement.
If Sabyasachi Panda had not undertaken the killing, then 50,000 minorities would not have been displaced, the OMF leader said adding that about 34 people were killed and livelihood of thousands of minorities would not have been destroyed.

"With Sabyasachi's arrest, we call for conclusive investigations into the Swami Laxmananda Saraswati murder case so that the guilty are tried and convicted at the earliest," Patra said.
Elaborating further, Patra said, "In 2008 despite links of Maoists in the killing of Swamiji, the innocent minorities were made a scapegoat in the hate campaign that was unleashed. It is therefore necessary that the guilty in Swamiji's murder are convicted through speedier investigation and trial so that the aspersions at times cast on the minority community regarding the killing would stand absolved forever."
The OMF further hoped that the Justice Naidu Commission investigating into the killing of Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and the ensuing communal violence in Kandhamal would greatly benefit from the arrest of Sabyasachi Panda and would take inputs from the alleged mastermind to file the completion of the Commission's investigation that has been in the running for the past six years since 2008.

The Forum also called on the Odisha Government to strengthen security measures in the district of Kandhamal and other Maoist affected districts in view of Panda's arrest.