MINORITIES - 2002 - Indian Social Institute

Hurriyat leaders held in Srinagar (7)
SRINAGAR, JULY 20.While three senior leaders of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference, including its
chairman, were placed under house arrest, Javed Mir and Bilal Lone and 10 women were among dozens
taken into custody when they tried to take out a march against the Qasim Nagar massacre. In Jammu, the
senior Hurriyat member and JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik, was released by a POTA court but rearrested
under the Public Safety Act. The Hurriyat had plans to take out a procession in Srinagar to protest the
massacre of labourers in Qasim Nagar a week ago. However, police, as alleged by the alliance, placed
the Hurriyat chairman, Abdul Gani Bhat, Mirwaiz Umar Fa-rooq and Moulvi Abbas Ansari under house
arrest. (Hindu 21.7.02)
22 nd July
UK Labour MPs to visit Gujarat for clearer picture (7)
London: In an indication of their intense and continuing interest in the aftermath of the Gujarat violence,
eight MPs of Britain's governing Labour Party have said they will visit the state to get "a clearer picture of
the situation on the ground". The MPs, who include some from Muslim constituencies, such as Terry
Rooney of Bradford and Fabian Hamilton of Leeds, have dismissed the Indian government's oft-stated
concern that British politicians are making domestic capital out of foreign issues, with one eye on the
Muslim votebank. In March, India criticised the British high commission's leaked report about the Gujarat
violence and asked other countries to mind their own business. (Times of India 22.7.02)
22 nd July
Nun in Jail, conversions stir town (7)
Raipur, July 21: Conversions are again creating a controversy, this time in Chhattisgarh. Christian bodies
in Ambikapur, district headquarters of Sarguja, today observed a bandh in missionary schools to protest
against a district court order last week upholding imprisonment of a nun on charges of forced conversion.
The Shiv Sena and the BJP called the bandh – organized to express solidarity with nun Vrishi Ekka – a
provocative step and staged dharnas outside schools. BJP legislature party chief Nand Kumar Sai said
that Christian organizations had no business to organize a bandh against the verdict. (Indian Exp 22.7.02)
22nd July
Dutt launches forum to spread peace, harmony (7)
New Delhi, July 21: IN TIMES of hate and communal strife, it is perhaps even more important to talk of
social amity and peace. Filmstar-turned Congressman Sunil Dutt seems to be guided by this principle
when he formally launched the 'Sadbha-vana Ke Sipahi' (soldiers of peace and harmony) on Sunday in the
presence of personalities like Manmohan Singh, Sharmila Tagore, Kamleshwar and Nir-mala Deshpande.
Meeting here, the 21-member Central Advisory Board of the forum, which Dutt heads as convenor,
identified Gujarat and J&K, among some other regions, as the main trouble-spots from where its
protagonists should initiate their programme of fighting fundamentalist forces and to spread messages of
peace, goodwill and harmony Although the violence in Gujarat had prompted Congress president Sonia
Gandhi to underline the need for such a platform, Dutt was emphatic that the Congress sponsored forum
and the movement woul,d be apolitical. (Hindustan Times 22.7.02)
22 nd July
Christian missionaries protest against jail sentence (7)
Bhopal: THE CONTROVERSY over the closure of educational institutions by Christian missionaries in
tribal district of Surguja has further snowballed as educational institutions run by Christian missionaries
remained closed at district headquarter of Ambikapur (1000 kilometres east of Bhopal) and entire Surguja
on July 19. Students who reached different schools on that day were sent back home. The undeclared
general strike by Christian missionaries in the Chhattisgarh State was observed to protest the jail
sentence to Sister Vridhi Ekka (44). She was sentenced to six months jail with a fine of Rs 500, on charge
of luring 94 Hindu Oraon tribals to convert into Christianity in the 1980s. Secretary of the Surguja and
Correa Christian Association (SCCA) B Kuzoor in a statement issued in Ambikapur has asserted that the
missionaries in no way has committed Contempt of Court by closing their schools on Friday. Mr Kuzoor
said that educational 'institutions were Closed for a day to express solidarity with Sister Vridhi Ekka said
Mr. B. Kuzoor. (Pioneer 22.7.02)