By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Kozhikode: The Kerala State Muslim Orphanages Coordination Committee expressed its protest against the booking of cases against the guardians of Gujarat victims who were brought to orphanages in Kerala. The Committee asked a speedy withdrawal of the cases. It also decided to file a complaint before the Press Council of India against the Malayala Manorama newspaper which had allegedly published a fake story portraying the orphanages as mafia, according to reports.
The meeting warned of those media which harm Muslim institutions giving fake reports. There are around 200 orphanages (run by Muslims) in Kerala and children from other states stay in only a very few number of them. According to the order of the Orphanage Control Board, there are no legal problems to it. Nevertheless, the police and other officials are harassing and threatening the committee members of orphanages. The meeting decided to respond to such acts. It also analysed that the wrong intentions are well understood from the fact that the media are keeping mum about the accommodation and education facilities etc of the children that the orphanages provide.
TK Pareekkutty Haji, President of the Committee, presided over the function attended by representatives of Muslim orphanages all over Kerala from Kasargode to Thiruvananthapuram. General secretary Adv M Muhammed welcomed the gathering.
Around 200 children, victims of the Gujarat genocide, are given asylum in several Muslim orphanages in Kerala. The children were reportedly brought with the help and cooperation of social activists in Gujarat and Kerala with all the necessary documents from the Shah Alam Refugee Camp in Ahmedabad. But there were reports in certain media that the children were brought for child labour. And as a result, authorities interfered in the matter and 29 children were transferred to the juvenile home in Kozhikode. Cases were reportedly booked against the guardians of the children as well as the members of the orphanage committees.