The authorities in Odisha’s Malkangiri district on Monday banned public gatherings and suspended internet services following violence between Adivasi groups and Bengali settlers a day earlier, the Hindustan Times reported.

At least 12 houses were damaged and several vehicles were vandalised on Sunday, the newspaper reported. At least four structures were set on fire.

Mobile and broadband internet was suspended for 24 hours in the district. The district authorities prohibited gatherings of more than five people in two villages.

The violence erupted following the murder of a 51-year-old woman from an Adivasi community. Her body had been recovered from a riverbank on December 4, the Hindustan Times reported. The murder was allegedly linked to a land dispute.

Nearly 5,000 members of the Adivasi community from the Rakhelguda village, carrying axes, bows and arrows, marched to the MV-26 village.

They allegedly set fire to the structures and looted shops that belonged to the Bengali families living in the settlement, the Hindustan Times reported. About 100 Bengali families live in the area.

While the police on Sunday arrested Subharanjan Mondal, who belongs to the Bengali community, in the murder case, the Adivasi groups were demanding action against all suspects involved in the matter.

Malkangiri Superintendent of Police Vinod Patil told the newspaper that the situation was under control and that the Rapid Action Force had been deployed in the area.

The police detained two persons in connection with the violence.

Several residents of MV-26 village have fled the area, the Hindustan Times reported. The Bengali residents of nearby villages protested at the collector’s office, demanding action against those involved in vandalism on Sunday, The Indian Express.

There has for long been tensions between the two groups. The Adivasi community has objected to the rehabilitation of the Bengali families in Malkangiri.

In 1956, the Union government had decided to rehabilitate several Hindu Bengali migrants who had shifted to India from present-day Bangladesh in the undivided districts of Koraput in Odisha and Bastar in Madhya Pradesh. Malkangiri was part of the Koraput district at the time.

The villages in the Koraput district where the Bengali community was settled were given serial numbers with the prefix MV, which stands for “Malkangiri village”.