New Delhi  - Police found three more bodies Wednesday of people killed in clashes between Hindus and Christians in India's eastern state of Orissa, bringing the death toll to 11, news reports said.

A few fresh incidents of rioting and arson led authorities to impose shoot-on-sight orders in parts of the curfew-bound Khandamal district, where the death of a Hindu leader has sparked violence since Monday, the PTI and IANS news agencies 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 killing of their leader.

There were reports of arson and clashes between Hindus and Christians on Tuesday and sporadic reports of violence Wednesday.

The authorities issued the shoot-on-sight order after a mob armed with sticks and crude weapons defied curfew restrictions and indulged in arson and violence at several places between Baliguda and Udaygiri towns, divisional revenue commissioner Satyabrata Sahu was quoted as saying.

There was widespread violence in the small town of Raikia, where two people were critically injured in an attack by a mob, Sahu said.

Raikia has been one of the places worst affected in the riots and there were reports that several families were fleeing to nearby forests, Sahu said.

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 that Maoists were behind the attack, saying local Christians were the perpetrators. Christian organizations have denied the allegations.

While most of the riot victims died of burns or asphyxiation in incidents of arson, four people died in clashes when police fired to disperse demonstrators in Barakhama village.

The three bodies found by police Wednesday were of people who had died earlier. Police said rioters had set up roadblocks, making it difficult for officials and forces to rapidly move into trouble spots. Unofficial reports said at least 14 had died in the two days of violence.

"Though tension prevails in Kandhamal, the situation is improving gradually," senior police official RP Koche said. "Security forces have been able to enter inaccessible areas by removing obstacles placed by miscreants."

Police and paramilitary forces marched through the troubled towns 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.

Koche said that while peace was being imposed gradually in towns, more remote rural areas were still trouble-prone. Additional forces had been deployed and more were being requisitioned, he said.

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)