No religion preaches violence: Yoga guru Ramdev tells Orissa

Rourkela (Orissa), Oct 21 (IANS) Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who is conducting a health camp in Orissa which has witnessed anti-Christian violence in the past two months, has said he is opposed to religious conversions as well as re-conversions.

'I don't not like conversions and also re-conversions,' he said in this steel city, 470 km from Orissa capital Bhubaneswar.

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He will be attending a six-day yoga camp organised by his followers from Tuesday.

The yoga guru said the problem 'is surfacing because we are attributing too much importance to symbolic religious practices rather than practicing religion as a way of life and means to peace.

'No religion preaches violence,' Ramdev said.

At least 36 people have been killed and more than 20,000 people, most of them Christians, have taken shelter in relief camps since late August after their houses were torched by rampaging Hindu mobs.

Orissa's Kandhamal district, some 200 km from here, has been witnessing violence after the killing of a Hindu leader and four of his aides Aug 23. Maoist rebels claimed responsibility for the murder, but some Hindu groups have held Christians responsible for it, using it to unleash their fury on Christians.