India asks Pakistan to ensure protection of minorities

Two days after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill of India, New Delhi asked him to look inwards and ensure protection and promotion of the rights of its minorities instead of compulsively comment on others in the breach of internationally recognized norms.

“Instead of casting aspersions on others, Pakistan needs to look inwards and ensure protection and promotion of the rights of its minorities and co-religionists rather than compulsively comment on others in the breach of internationally recognized norms,” Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi on Thursday.

Khan posted on Twitter on Tuesday that the CAB would violate all norms of international human rights law and bilateral agreements between India and Pakistan. Prime Minister of Pakistan added that the CAB was a part of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's campaign for “Hindu Rashtra” propagated by the “fascist (Narendra) Modi Government”.

“Such comments (by Pakistan Prime Minister) cannot absolve Pakistan of the blatant persecution of the religious minorities which flows, including from the discrimination imbibed in its Constitution, the draconian blasphemy laws; the apathy of the State institutions in protecting the girls belonging to minority community from rape, abduction, forced conversion and marriages; vandalism and destruction of religious places of worship,” the MEA spokesperson said in New Delhi.