Bhopal: Alleging that the official minorities bodies had failed to address their problems, Muslim, Christian and Buddhist representatives on Thursday declared the formation of a Madhya Pradesh Minorities Council to ``combat atrocities'' against their communities.

They said the Council would oppose a Bill passed by the Assembly to amend the anti-conversion law.

``Muslims have been victims of atrocities for ages. Now we find that Christians and Buddhists have also become soft targets. Thus we have decided to unite,'' Council president Mufti Abdur Razzaq Khan told reporters here.

Madarsas, which embody a rich tradition and were used by kings and nawabs to educate members of their courts, were now being dubbed as centres of terrorism, he said.

After being isolated for long, Muslims had decided to join hands with Buddhists and Christians to ``fight for their rights'', Mr. Khan said.

Buddhist leader B S Sagar, who is the Council's Secretary, said freedom of religion was bestowed on the people by the Constitution and the penal provisions in the Bill to amend the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act 1968 went against this.

Alleging that the amendment would be used as a tool to target Christians, who were treated as ``second-class citizens'', former State Minority Commission member and the Council Treasurer's Indira Iyengar said the commission had been ineffective in helping minorities as its members are appointed by the government and ``carried a similar stream of thoughts as the ruling party''.

``The Commission might make recommendations, but the government often ignored them,'' she alleged, adding the Council will act as a medium to move the masses against atrocities on the Christians. -- PTI

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