Large parts of Kandhamal district, where the death of a Hindu leader has sparked an orgy of violence since Monday, were under curfew and police called the situation tense, IANS news agency reported.

Activists of the right-wing Vishwa Hindu Parishad and its affiliate Bajrang Dal attacked churches, torched vehicles and stopped rail and road traffic across the state Monday, during protests over the weekend killing of their leader.

Laxmanananda Saraswati, who led a campaign against religious conversion in the region, was killed with four others Saturday evening after suspected Maoist rebels opened fire on them at their ashram in Kandhamal district, the police said.

Hindu activists have dismissed the police claim saying local Christians were behind the attack. Christian organizations have denied the allegations.

The police discovered one body in Phiringia and another in Raikia, both villages in the district.

"One of them had died Monday and the other Tuesday. Both died after mobs attacked them," Kandhamal district official Kishan Kumar was quoted as saying.

A third person was found in critical condition and died in hospital on Tuesday night, Kumar said.

Four bodies were found earlier including that of a 22-year-old woman who died in a Christian-run orphanage that was set on fire.

Four more were killed on Tuesday when the police fired on a mob attacking Christian prayer halls and shops in Barakhama village, about 340 kilometres west of state capital Bhubaneshwar.

"At least 11 towns in Khandamal district are under curfew," a district official said.

Police and paramilitary forces marched through the troubled towns on Wednesday. Orders prohibiting assembly of four or more people, have been issued across the region. All roads leading to the district are being monitored by security forces.

Communally sensitive Khandamal - with a population of around 600,000 including 150,000 Christians - has witnessed numerous clashes between Hindus and Christians in the past.

In one of the worst attacks on Christians in Orissa, Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two young sons were burned alive by a fanatical Hindu mob that set their car on fire in Keonjhar district in 1999. (dpa)