JOIN USThe Bharatiya Janata Party and its former ally Biju Janata Dal, on Monday raised the issue of alleged persecution of Hindus in Pakistan in Lok Sabha and demanded that the government summon Islamabad’s envoy to India here and convey its concern.
The Samajwadi Party, which has been supporting the ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, too demanded that the government ensure that the incidents in Pakistan did not have repercussions in India.
Senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh raised the issue in the Lower House of Parliament and quoted media reports about persecution of Hindus and Sikhs, conversion of a Hindu youth and the kidnapping of a Hindu young woman, who was later forced to change her religion, in Pakistan. “Hindus and Sikhs are completely unsafe in Pakistan.
Their lives and property are in peril,” he said, noting a recent incident in which about 250 Hindu pilgrims from Pakistan had been stopped from crossing over to India by the immigration authorities of that country at the border, although they had valid visas issued by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.
Singh alleged that the Pakistani authorities had allowed the pilgrims passage only after they had given an undertaking that they would not talk about their persecution in Pakistan while on pilgrimage to India.
Singh demanded that the Government should summon the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi and convey India’s concern. He also wanted the House to pass a resolution condemning atrocities on minorities in Pakistan.
“Our frontiers should be opened to all Hindus (from Pakistan) who want to come and settle here. This is the only place which can give them support, succour and security,” said BJD MP B Mahtab.
The SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav said that the issue was not about Hindus or Muslims. “It is a humanitarian issue. India should raise its voice wherever human rights of people are being violated,” he said.