BHUBANESWAR, INDIA, November 29, 2002: Servants of Puri’s Lord Jagannath might soon have an added qualification on their resumes. Priests who have spent a lifetime fine-tuning ritual supplication will now learn the art of resistance. Wary of an Akshardham or a Raghunath temple-style attack, administrators of Puri’s most famous landmark have decided to impart martial arts training to the temple’s priests. The way temple administrators see it, should terrorists manage to breach the outer security cordon of gun-toting personnel, the priests with their newly acquired karate, judo or kung-fu skills will present a second line of defense. “We are now initiating efforts to revive the traditional security system keeping in view modern needs. Thousands of devotees visit the shrine daily for a darshan of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra. Entry and exit of so many people makes the shrine vulnerable to terrorists,” temple administrator B. S. Panda said. The priests seemed enthusiastic saying, “It (physical training) will be very good,” said R.C. Dasmohapatra, president of the Daitapati Nijog. The temple administrator did not explain how an unarmed priest, however skilled in martial arts, could successfully overcome a heavily armed terrorist.
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