Mumbai, June 10 (IANS) The Jamiat Ulama-i Hind Islamic trust Sunday handed out scholarships to nine Hindu school students here, an official said Sunday.

In the past three years, we have extended generous financial aid and scholarships to 25 non-Muslim students and the figure keeps on increasing depending on the number of applications we get, head of the organisation's legal cell Gulzar Azmi told IANS.

Trust president Arshad Madani said that the organisation has consciously kept away from making discriminations based on religion since its inception in 1919.

In those days, we fought against the British rulers and those who advocated a separate state of Pakistan. Now, we are present anywhere in the country to provide emergency help to Muslims and non-Muslims, Madani observed.

The Jamiat Ulama-i Hind distributed scholarships worth over Rs.1.75 million to nine Hindu and 301 Muslim students Sunday, Azmi said.

Targetted at students of Class VI to Class XII from different Mumbai schools, Maharashtra's Minister for Minority Affairs & Textiles Naseem Khan gave away the scholarships to the needy students this afternoon.

Again depending on the requirements and performance of the students, the individual scholarship amounts ranged between Rs.1,000 to Rs.10,000 which covers the annual school tuition and term fees.

Besides, Azmi said that the NGO has in the past provided legal aid to the innocent Muslim youths, who had been arrested in various terror charges.

Azmi, declaring concern for humanity, pointed out how the Muslim NGO had provided relief to people injured in last week's gas cylinder blast in north-east Mumbai, and a recent building crash in the Muslim-dominated powerloom town of Bhiwandi in Thane district.

He added that there are many non-Muslim trusts and NGOs which provide financial assistance to deserving Muslim students and his NGO decided, in its own modest ways to reciprocate the gesture.