NGO to submit report to PM on plight of Christians in J&K

A city-based NGO will submit a report on the persecution of Christians in the Kashmir valley to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next week.

A city-based NGO will submit a report on the persecution of Christians in the Kashmir valley to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next week.

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The Catholic-Christian Secular Forum (CSF) prepared the report titled ‘Religious Liberty and Persecution in Kashmir’ after a 10-day visit to the valley earlier this month.

"Since 1970, Christians have been targeted by the fundamentalists settled in the state. Missionaries have been burnt alive, community members have been grievously injured and in several cases, forced to convert to Islam," said justice Michael Saldanha, a retired high court judge who was part of the group that prepared the report. "The number of Christians in Kashmir has declined from almost 40,000 in 2000 to merely 800 today," alleged Saldanha.

"The government must intervene to put an end to the persecution carried out in the state under the garb of Shariat law," said Joseph Dias, general secretary, CSF.