New Delhi: Rebutting claims by some members of US Congress about the number of minority community members languishing in Indian jails, National Commission for Minorities (NCM) on January 17 said the number based on a report of Movement Against State Repression (MASR) was "totally false and not based on facts".

"Some months ago about 38 members of US Congress wrote a letter to US President George W Bush, where they quoted a report of MASR mentioning that 50,000 Sikhs are political prisoners in various jails in India and are being held without charges and trial," NCM vice-chairman Tarlochan Singh said.

They (members) further stated that there were thousands of Christians, Muslims and other minority community persons who were held as political prisoners, he said in a statement, adding, the "report of MASR has given many unimaginative figures of the Sikhs arrested from 1985 onwards under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and those involved in Operation Black Thunder."

Taking serious note of the reports, NCM wrote to the Home Ministry asking it to collect the exact information from each state. "It has been communicated to NCM by the Home Ministry and chief secretaries that there are very few persons belonging to different minority communities who are in jails pending trials and the report published by MASR is totally false and not based on facts," Singh said.

A latest communication by Punjab director general of police (DGP) said there were only 15 persons in jail pending trial under TADA in the state, he said, adding besides this there were 220 people in various jails who were convicted under TADA and other 68 people were missing, convicted under TADA.

"The factual report has been sent to the Indian Ambassador in US so that he can clear wrong impression being created by certain persons with ulterior motive," Singh said.

PTI