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Gujarat recalls circular on Christian census

The controversial circular issued last month by the intelligence department of Gujarat police, seeking collection of information about the Christians, Muslims and Hindus, was withdrawn yesterday with the department maintaining that the ''circular was not required''.

According to an official release, the additional director-general of police, R N Bhattacharya, had directed all police officers to stop the process of collecting information about the three communities.

On February 2, the circular had sparked off a controversy with Justice M R Calla of the Gujarat high court taking notice of press reports in this regard and passing a suo motu order to the state authorities to clarify their stand. The state government had maintained that it was a ''routine'' circular issued by the intelligence department. Later, the matter was referred to a division bench of the high court and was expected to come up for hearing next week.

Bhattacharya, in the release, stated that the work of collecting information was being stopped as it was not required.

UNI

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