Bhopal: The Christian community wants a
central agency to probe the controversial police order on
`profiling` them which was later withdrawn by the Madhya
Pradesh government, a top cleric said here on Tuesday.
Alleging that the members of the community were being
treated as "second grade citizens" in the state, Rev Leo
Cornelio, the Catholic Archbishop of Bhopal, said they will
raise the issue with the Chief Minister.
"We will meet Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj
Singh Chouhan on April 21 in connection with the withdrawn
controversial order as it has come following statewide attacks
on our community in the last seven years," the Archbishop
told reporters.
Cornelio, who is also chairman of the Madhya Pradesh
Bishops Conference, said that the religious body wanted a
detailed probe by a central agency in the order as it is an
"indication of more trouble in offing for Christians".
"We are being treated as the second grade citizens,"
he said and claimed that the Christians "are living under fear
in the state".
Cornelio said that the community members wanted the
central agency to probe the person who had issued the order,
the officers` responsible for executing it and motive behind
`profiling`.
"The order came at a juncture when more than 100
attacks have taken place on Christians in the last seven
years," he alleged.
"Frivolous and mischievous allegations of religious
conversion were being levelled against the clerics," the
pontiff alleged.
The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh
had recently been in the eye of a controversy over a police
circular to profile Christians and churches in the state but
the move was dropped following protests by members of the
minority community.
The controversial circular directed all police
stations in the state to profile the Christian community was
withdrawn by the Police Head Quarter (PHQ) of Bhopal.
The Director General of Police (DGP) S K Raut has said
that he "did not" issue the controversial order.
The Director General of Police (Intelligence) has been
probing the matter, sources said.
PTI
