January 21, 2003	Tuesday	Ziqa’ad 17, 1423

NEW DELHI, jan 20: American missionary Joseph W Cooper, who was viciously attacked by rightwing Hindu activists in Kerala last week, has been asked to leave the country within seven days for violating visa rules, news reports said on Monday.

“We have served orders to Cooper to leave the country within seven days for preaching while on tourist visa and thereby violating visa rules,” Press Trust of India quoted Thiruvananthapuram District Superintendent of Police (Rural) T K Vinodkumar as saying.

The news agency said a special branch probe had prima facie found that Cooper had violated a 1995 federal order restricting foreign citizens visiting India on tourist visas from preaching at religious meetings.

It said the Ministry of External Affairs and the Union Home Department had asked for a report from the state police on the charge that Cooper had spoken at religious conventions.

The 67-year-old Cooper, an ordained Bishop of the New Jerusalem Church from Pennsylvania, was attacked along with a team of local evangelists at Koppam near Kilimanur while they were returning after a prayer meeting on Jan 13.—Jay Enn