Author:
Publication: Rediff
on Net
Date: November 17, 2000
The Indian government
has asked 10 Christian missionaries from the United States to leave the
country by Sunday, a Press Trust of India report said on Friday.
The report did not name
the church in the southern city of Madurai where the missionaries worked,
but said the order for them to leave India was issued by the Union Home
Ministry in New Delhi.
They were told to pack
their bags as they did not renew their visa papers in time.
Officials in the US embassy
here were not immediately available to comment on the development, the
first involving American priests working in India in recent years.
Madurai district administrator
Mani Bharathi, however, said the marching orders came when the missionaries
did not present themselves before the local police for the renewal of their
travel papers.
The missionaries told
PTI that they were "disappointed" by the directive and that they would
leave for Sri Lanka and return in case the issue was settled with the Indian
government.
