JAKARTA, Indonesia: Indonesian Shia community leaders held meeting with leaders of the House of Representatives on Tuesday May 14 to voice their grievances over the plight of Shiites in Sampang, East Java, who have been in limbo for nearly a year after being evicted by extremists there.

While a peaceful rally was staged by Shiites in front of the House compound on Tuesday, 30 Shiite clerics met with House Speaker Marzuki Alie and lawmakers from House Commission III overseeing law and human rights, and Commission VIII overseeing religion, to persuade the lawmakers to throw their weight behind a move to oppose the government’s plan for relocating the Shiites to areas outside Sampang.

Abdullah Beikh from the Madura Shia community called on lawmakers to take immediate action to support the Shia community, especially now that the local government in Sampang had made a move to evict them from the area.