New Delhi  - Curfew was clamped in Kandhamal district of India's eastern state of Orissa on Tuesday as police put the death toll at five in violence by Hindu right-wing activists who vandalized and set fire to Christian churches and church property in the area.

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. They called the strike to protest the weekend killing of their leader in a campaign against religious conversion.

A 22-year-old woman was burnt alive when a mob set fire to an orphanage run by the church in Khuntpali village, 300 kilometres from Orissa capital Bhubaneshwar. Another person was killed in an adjoining village when he failed to escape from a burning building.

Khandamal district remained tense on Tuesday and police said there were reports of three more deaths in the Raikia area where the victims apparently died of smoke inhalation after their houses were torched near midnight.

Orders banning assembly of five or more people were enforced across Kandhamal district and curfew was imposed in three towns, senior police official Pradeep Kapoor was quoted as saying by IANS news agency.

Curfew was imposed in Baliguda, Phulbani and Tumudibandh towns and police and paramilitary forces held flag marches in troubled areas, Kapoor said. Schools and colleges in the district remained closed.

VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others were killed on Saturday evening after suspected Maoist rebels opened fire on them at their ashram or hermitage in Kandhamal district, the police said.

Saraswati led a campaign against cow slaughter and conversion to Christianity in the communally sensitive district. At least 150,000 of Khadamal's 600,000 population are Christians and the district has seen numerous clashes between Hindus and Christians in the past.

Hindu groups alleged Christians were behind the killing of Saraswati because he opposed religious conversion. Christian organizations denied the allegations.

Orissa state government ordered a judicial probe into the killings and named a special police team to investigate the crime.

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)