January 22, 2008	Tuesday	Muharram 12, 1429

NEW DELHI: Indian tourism officials are meeting this week to discuss the safety of tourists after at least seven foreign women and girls said they had been raped or molested over the past 20 days, a ministry spokesman said.

Several of the alleged attacks took place in Rajasthan, one of India’s popular tourist destinations, known for its palaces and desert scenery.

The tourism ministry is worried that the reports could deter potential visitors to the country, which is visited by about four million foreign tourists each year. “We’ve asked states to report to us what happened in these incidents and how they can not be repeated,” a ministry spokesman said.

A 35-year-old woman who holds dual citizenship of France and Switzerland told the police on Saturday she had been raped in the Rajasthan town of Pushkar, the Hindustan Times reported.

An American woman said she was molested in the same town a few weeks earlier, while a British woman said she was raped in the city of Udaipur, also in Rajasthan, just before Chris-tmas, the paper said.—Reuters