The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) on Monday said there was "abnormally high" growth of Christian population in the North-East and this could be due to illegal Bangladeshi Muslim migrants reporting themselves as Christians.
NCM chairman S Tarlochan Singh said that scientific analysis of Census 2001 of the Christian community, conducted by NCM expert committee chairman Prof Ashish Bose on 'Census data on religion', showed "there was abnormally high growth of Christian population in N-E, especially bordering Bangladesh", while the proportion of Christians had remained the same - at 2.3% - for 1991 and 2001.
Singh said he had held a meeting of Christian leaders to discuss the analysis prepared by Bose and sought details from them in understanding this phenomenon through the help of Church records on births and deaths.
The report said: "There is startling aspect of growth rates which is inexplicable unless we know the grassroot reality." In terms of percentage, Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya have the highest percentage of Christians, Singh said.