A state of terror

The Pakistan Foreign Office has sharply rebuked Indian Foreign Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar for remarks in which he termed Pakistan a state which harboured international terrorism, while praising the progress made by India. Pakistan has rightly termed this statement to be completely untrue and pointed out that India is guilty of multiple abuses of human rights, most commonly after 2015 and the takeover in 2014 by the BJP government.

This government has in fact encouraged violent acts against Muslims, with two of its ministers in recent television debates pouring out hatred against the Muslims who make up over 200 million of the Indian population. There have also been pogroms in various states in India, after Muslims protested laws which barred Muslims entering from other states the grant of citizenship. Over the past nearly one decade now, Muslims in India have been subjected to the worst violence and discrimination. Just recently a group associated with the ruling party, at a meeting in Utter Pradesh, called for the Muslim minority in the country to be wiped out systematically. These remarks made a few months ago have not been openly condemned by any senior member of the Indian government. Other similar meetings with similar remarks have also taken place apart from the systematic violence against Muslims in states such as Gujarat.

And of course, in Indian Occupied Kashmir, the violence against Muslims who make up the majority continues. There have also been calls of Muslim women to be raped and the community humiliated in any way possible. In this situation, Jaishankar's statement is obviously extremely hypocritical and simply depicts the state of mind that has taken hold in India. Muslims in the country now live in a state of perpetual fear. This should not be permitted and the international community needs to take stronger action to prevent the kind of random violence which is encouraged by the Indian state. The BJP and its leaders and followers have for long had blood on their hands. And it seems they are only looking to inflict even more violence on the Indian and Kashmiri Muslim.