Kashmir chief minister takes up Dutch missionary’s case

(July 26, 2010) The chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state, Omar Abdullah has sought to reassure the local Catholic bishop over the future of a Dutch missionary facing expulsion from India. A state Foreigners Registration Office directive on June 26 ordered Mill Hill missionary priest Fr. Jim Borst to leave India by the end of July. Bishop Peter Celestine Elampassery of Jammu-Srinagar, who met Abdullah on Thursday, said the chief minister was not aware of the order. The minister said his office had not sanctioned it and he would investigate the matter, the Capuchin prelate told Ucanews on Monday. He assured “us not to worry about it,” the bishop added. Reports say the move against the priest was the result of his alleged attempts to convert people to Catholicism in India’s only Muslim majority state, but Church officials say the accusation is false. Father Borst, who has served in the state since 1963, says the order was the result of a botched police investigation. The bishop, who submitted a memorandum to Abdullah, said the government last year extended the missionary’s visa till 2014. But the expulsion order overturned the visa. Vicar general Father Varkey T. J. told Ucanews that the state Criminal Investigation Department made Father Borst sign the expulsion order but did not give him a copy of it.