The mutilated head of 52-year-old Lake Podiami, missing since December 1, was recovered on Tuesday, four days after angry mobs torched houses belonging mostly to Bengali-Hindu settlers at MV-26 village in Odisha’s Malkangiri district.

Podiami’s headless body had been found on December 4, triggering outrage among tribal residents of nearby Rakhelguda village.

The administration on Tuesday extended the Internet ban, initially imposed for 36 hours, for 12 hours till 12 noon on Thursday amid fears that the unrest could spread to neighbouring areas or be exploited by Maoist groups active along the Odisha–Chhattisgarh border.

Violence broke out on December 7 and 8, when mobs stormed the Bengali settlement following the detention of a youth, Subharanjan Mandal, from the Bengali community, accused of Podiami’s murder. More than 163 of 188 houses in the village were set ablaze, leaving hundreds homeless.

72-year-old Mahananda Bairagi, a former sarpanch and one of the 1.5 lakh Bengali-Hindus settled in southern Odisha after migrating from Bangladesh in 1963, sat among the ashes of his home in disbelief. “They burnt down everything — my house, my motorcycles, even my son’s savings for his daughter’s marriage. We fled East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) 62 years ago to escape persecution. Where do we go now?” he told The Telegraph.

Another Bengali resident, Gournaga Swarnakar, 60, told this newspaper: “We want peace, not conflict. The murder should not divide us. Whether the accused is a tribal or Bengali, justice must be done,” he said.

The Odisha government has announced ₹4 lakh compensation for the deceased woman’s family.

For elders like Mahananda, however, the tragedy feels like history repeating itself. “We left our homes once because we were tortured for being Hindu,” he said softly. “Now, after six decades, we are suffering again — only this time, in the land we thought was home.”

The Bengali settlers were rehabilitated under a government programme in the 1960s, each family allotted five acres of land across 214 villages in Malkangiri, 57 in Nabarangpur and smaller pockets in Jagatsinghpur and Khurda. Many have since integrated into Odisha’s political and social fabric — some even serving as ministers.

Local tribal leader Bandhu Muduli, however, maintained that many settlers have occupied more than their allotted land. “We want eviction of all unauthorised Bengali settlers. The government must act,” he said.

Malkangiri collector Somesh Kumar Upadhyay told reporters that a peace committee comprising tribal and Bengali representatives has been formed to restore harmony.