Pakistan rejects New Delhi’s reaction to PM’s tweet

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office of Pakistan Friday rejected the Indian External Affairs Ministry’s the comments on a tweet of Prime Minister Imran Khan about the discriminatory citizenship bill passed by the Indian Parliament this week.

The MEA spokesperson criticised the prime minister for commenting on what he said was an internal matter of India.

“Many international human rights organizations and neutral observers, even from within India, have characterised the legislation as discriminatory against Muslims and unconstitutional,” responded the Foreign Office.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had tweeted immediately after the Indian Parliament had passed the bill. “We strongly condemn the Indian Lok Sabha citizenship legislation which violates all norms of int human rights law & bilateral agreements with Pak. It is part of the RSS ‘Hindu Rashtra’ design of expansionism propagated by the fascist Modi Govt,” Khan had tweeted.

Rejecting the Indian statement, the Foreign Office pointed out that the bill was premised on falsehood, both with regard to the alleged decline in non-Muslim population in Pakistan as well as their alleged persecution in the country.

“Furthermore, objectively speaking, India should be the last country to pretend being a “protector” of the minorities. The world’s media have widely reported on and condemned the deplorable conditions of minorities in India, especially since the assumption of office of right-wing BJP in 2014,” added the spokesman.

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 India’s neighboring countries.

“Today’s India is synonymous with lynching of members of minority communities including low caste Dalits by mobs, often with state complicity. The persecution of nearly 8 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,” said the statement.

Pakistan urged the international community to take notice of violation of minorities’ rights, including the Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir, in India, under the illegal occupation of India.