Several committee members, including its chairman Pranab Mukherjee, are believed to have expressed concern about the increasing attacks on Christians in Gujarat, Orissa and elsewhere. Though the agenda for today's meet was law and order, it came as no surprise to Union Home Secretary B P Singh, Special Secretaries Nikhil Kumar, M B Kaushal and other Home Ministry officials present that the discussions boiled down to the assaults on Christians.

B P Singh, it is learnt, told the Parliamentarians (though the committee has 45 members, only about 20 participated in today's discussions) that the Home Ministry was seized of the matter but there was no immediate cause foralarm.

The recent happenings in Orissa, Singh informed the committee, were isolated incidents and should not be seen as an emerging pattern of law and order situation in the State. Similar was the case with Gujarat, he stressed.

In fact, there is much more to the incidents -- sporadic and stretched out in several States as they are -- than what meets the eye or is easily understood by the public. For instance, in the case of the nuns' rape in Jhabua, at least eight accused were Christians, the Home Secretary pointed out.

Nevertheless, North Block has reportedly promised to place before the Committee a detailed report on the violence against minorities. But this, observers say, should not be seen in isolation as it was an indicator of the general crime situation.

The Home Ministry officials also informed the members about the situation in Kashmir and the North-East, which they held was under control. In Kashmir, particularly, the members were told, the law enforcing agencies had an upper hand.

Thecommittee will place its report in Parliament after it goes through the rigmarole of collecting information on the law and order situation in the country. Its members -- selected from both Houses of Parliament and representing different parties -- are slated to meet again on February 18.

The Home Ministry, meanwhile, is yet to get from the Orissa Government the full facts on the alleged rape of a nun recently. New Delhi has been handed over a preliminary report but senior Ministry officials insist there are several unexplained points, hinting that this incident may not be as much of an ``open and shut'' case as it is made out to be.