With law and order situation improving in Orissa's riot-scarred Kandhamal district, day curfew was suspended on Monday even as the death toll rose to 16 with the recovery of two bodies.

Curfew was suspended from 6 am to 6 pm as situation improved "substantially" in all nine areas of the district, Revenue Divisional Commissioner (RDC), Southern Division, Satyabrata Sahu said. Barring stray incidents of stone-throwing, scuffles and demonstrations in Raikia and G Udaygiri villages, no major incidents of trouble was reported from the district.

About 200 people were arrested in connection with various violent incidents that followed the August 23 murder of VHP leader Laxmanananda Saraswati at an ashram school for girls at Jalespata in Tumudibandh area.

Meanwhile, the death toll in the communal violence rose to 16, including one in Bargarh district, with the recovery of two bodies from Tikabali and Raikia in Kandhamal, Inspector General of Police R P Singh said.

As the focus shifted to relief and rehabilitation of the riot-hit, over 13,000 people were sheltered in relief centres at seven places in Kandhamal. Curfew remains clamped at Jeypore of Koraput district, where 11 people were injured in violent clashes on August 30. Prohibitory orders were in force at Baipariguda and Kundra, where five churches and prayer houses were vandalised.