Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Dozens of Pakistani Hindus seek asylum in India: report


“You can not understand our pain. My father recently passed away; I could not even find a place to perform my father’s last rites. We will not go back to Pakistan. You may kill us if you wish, but we will not return.”

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch |
Source/Credit: DAWN.COM
By Dawn | September 9, 2012

ISLAMABAD: A group of Pakistani Hindus arriving in the Indian state of Rajhasthan says that they will not return to their home country, according to a report published by the BBCUrdu.

The group of 171 people arrived in Rajhasthan’s Jodhpur city via the ‘Thar Express’ train on Sunday.

Although the passengers in the group traveled to the Indian state on pilgrimage visas for religious purposes, they claim they will not return to Pakistan.

The Seemant Lok Sangthan (SLS), an organisation for Hindus from Pakistan settled in India, has appealed to the Indian government to grant the group immigrant visas.

According to a spokesman of the organisation, all 171 people in the group have arrived in Jodhpur from Pakistan’s Sindh province, and “they all belong to Sanghar or Hyderabad.”

The group comprises of 32 women and children of whom a majority belong to the low-caste Bheel community of Hindus.

“You can not understand our pain. My father recently passed away; I could not even find a place to perform my father’s last rites,” the BBCUrdu quoted one of the people arriving with the group. “We will not go back to Pakistan. You may kill us if you wish, but we will not return.”

The news follows media reports earlier last month of hundreds of Pakistani Hindu nationals from Sindh allegedly migrating to India over concerns of religious persecution and security fears. A committee was formed by President Asif Ali Zardari to look into the reports of mass migration. However, the committee rejected the claims that members of the minority community were leaving Sindh.

Later in August, authorities in Rajhasthan state announced that around 900 Pakistani Hindus had become eligible to apply for Indian citizenship. The people included those Pakistanis who had traveled to India prior to December 31, 2004 and refused return to their home country.


Read original post here: Dozens of Pakistani Hindus seek asylum in India: report


This content-post is archived for backup and to keep archived records of any news Islam Ahmadiyya. The views expressed by the author and source of this news archive do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Ahmadiyya Times.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments. Any comments irrelevant to the post's subject matter, containing abuses, and/or vulgar language will not be approved.

Top read stories during last 7 days

Disclaimer!

THE TIMES OF AHMAD is NOT an organ of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, nor in any way associated with any of the community's official websites. Times of Ahmad is an independently run and privately managed news / contents archival website; and does not claim to speak for or represent the official views of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. The Times of Ahmad assumes full responsibility for the contents of its web pages. The views expressed by the authors and sources of the news archives do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Times of Ahmad. All rights associated with any contents archived / stored on this website remain the property of the original owners.