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Minorities commission condemns priest's killing

The National Commission for Minorities today said the continuous ''communally selective'' killing of minorities in Orissa's tribal district could not be viewed merely as a local law and order problem and demanded that a ''stronger will at the national level'' was needed to curb such a disastrous trend.

Dr Tahir Mahmood, chairman of the commission in a statement appreciated ''forthright'' condemnation by Prime Minister A B Vajpayee of the cold-blooded killing of Fr Arul Doss and said the commission strongly feels that the priest's killing and that of Sheikh Rehman's recently ''cannot be seen as novel and isolated incidents''.

''What the minorities have been facing from time to time in Orissa and Gujarat cannot be viewed merely as local law and order problems and should be seen in its entirety'', the commission chairman said, adding that ''this is a much greater menace causing utter disgrace to the entire nation and needs to be curbed with stronger hands requiring will at the national level''.

''The ground reality'', Dr Mahmood pointed out, ''was that the killings had been communally selective and in view of this, the state government alone could not be held either solely responsible for the happenings or exclusively liable to prevent them from recurrence.''

UNI

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