New Dehli, India ? Hindu extremists torched nearly a dozen churches and the home of a Christian leader Thursday, defying a curfew imposed to quell three days of religious violence in eastern India. Christians retaliated by setting fire to several homes belonging to Hindus.

Local police have been unsuccessful in halting the attacks, and the federal government announced it was sending in a paramilitary force.

About 19 churches, most of them small mud and thatch buildings, have been razed since violence broke out Christmas Eve when long-standing tensions between the Hindu majority and the Christian community erupted over conversions to Christianity.

On Thursday, a mob of Hindus burned down the house of Radhakant Nayak, a member of India’s upper house of parliament and a Christian leader in the area, Nayak told the CNN-IBN news channel.