Indian police suspend profiling

The police commissioner in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, HT Sangliana, has suspended a controversial measure to take the finger and foot prints of all slum dwellers over the age of 15.

Human rights groups and non-government organisations have protested against the policy, saying it discriminated against the poor.

A senior opposition leader had called for the measure to stop.

Mr Sangliana said the policy was designed to curb crime, not to harass slum dwellers - hundreds of whom have already been fingerprinted and photographed.

The commissioner ordered the profiling after a robbery attempt at the home of a senior prison official on Tuesday.

Police suspect the robbers were slum dwellers.

Mr Sangliana said the policy might be reintroduced after he'd held talks with groups opposed to it.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service