Jaipur: Rajasthan Deeni Talim Trust, a Muslim voluntary body, today (Feb 18, 2004) denied the claim of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) that a large number of Muslim families in Ajmer district had returned to Hindu fold earlier this week.

By making such false claims, fundamentalist and fascist organisations want to create an atmosphere of fear among Muslims, chairman of the Trust Muhammad Salim told reporters in Jaipur.

The people being presented as those made Muslims by coercion in the past and returning back to Hindu fold is false propaganda. The families, whose re-conversion at a meeting in Andheri Deori village in the presence of VHP chief Ashok Singhal has been publicised, were already Hindus, Salim said.

Organisations like VHP were not only trying to tell Muslims that their faith was not protected in this country, but were also tarnishing the image of secular India whose constitution gives full freedom of practicing any faith one likes, he said.

The Trust called upon all right-thinking people to scuttle any effort, which creates a divide between different communities.