Pakistan on Friday rejected comments by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson about a tweet of Prime Minister Imran Khan regarding discriminatory citizenship bill passed by the Indian parliament this week.
Many international human rights organizations and neutral observers even from within India have characterized the legislation as discriminatory against Muslims and unconstitutional, the Foreign Office spokesperson said, and reiterated that the Indian legislation is premised on a falsehood, both with regard to the alleged decline in non-Muslim population in Pakistan as well as their alleged persecution in the country. The spokesman said India should be the last country to pretend being a ‘protector’ of the minorities, adding that the international media has widely reported on and condemned the deplorable conditions of the minorities in India, especially since the assumption of office of right-wing BJP in 2014. The spokesman said the architects of the massacre of thousands of Muslims in Gujarat do not have the moral high ground to preach about the rights of minorities to the neighbouring countries. “Today’s India is synonymous with lynching of members of minority communities including low-caste Dalits by mobs, often with state complicity,” the statement read. The spokesman said the persecution of nearly eight million unarmed and innocent Kashmiri Muslims, incarcerated by 900,000 Indian security forces for over four months, is a living testimony to India being a country with no respect for human rights and minority rights. “We urge the international community to take notice of the violation of minority rights in India, including the Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir under the illegal occupation of India,” the statement added.
