Taking cue from the Union Government, which has ordered an inquiry into the killings of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in Orissa, the AMPS in a 66-page letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, has urged the Government to set up a similar panel to probe ``the killings of 17 Ananda Margis in broad daylight in Calcutta.''

``Never had the city of Calcutta or any part of our country witnessed such inhuman, brutal and systematic massacre spreading over one and a half hours without any police intervention while the police station is at a stone's throw distance,'' the letter said.

Incidentally, on April 30, 1982, 17 Ananda Margis were lynched to death by a mob on Bijon Setu in South Calcutta. And each year on the same day since then the Ananda Margis take out processions to condemn the killings.

The letterto the Prime Minister said that had this mass killings been properly investigated, ``the minority community would not have been subjected to persistent attacks in the last 17 years.''

The letter has urged the Prime Minister to immediately set up a high-level probe panel into the killings in accordance with the provision of the Commission of Inquiry Act, 1952. ``Failing which the government, would violate the provision of the Constitution,'' the letter added.