India willing to give asylum to Hindus from Pak

[Ajaxpaul]

NEW DELHI: India would be open to giving asylum to Hindus from Pakistan if they ask for it. Some 250-odd Hindus have arrived recently and most are keen on seeking permanent residence in India as they fear persecution in Pakistan.

India is "surprised" at the sudden influx of Hindus from Pakistan who have indicated that they will ask for asylum after arriving here for an annual pilgrimage or tourism visit, said government sources. In the past week, at least three batches of Hindus have come to India from Pakistan.

Although they were made to sign documents promising to return before being allowed to cross into India, many of them have said they would ask for asylum here.

If these Hindus approach the government — sources said they had not yet done so — it would be an inter-ministerial decision. However, sources said "India does not generally turn away asylum seekers."

The plight of Hindus in Pakistan has figured in Parliament with BJP leader Rajnath Singh forcefully raising the religious and human rights violations the community faces in the neighbouring country. He found the support of other parties with BJD's Bhartruhari Mahtab saying India should offer shelter to Hindus migrating from Pakistan. Mahtab said Pakistan has been unable to protect its minorities.

Migration of Hindus an embarrassment for Pakistan

The plight of Hindus in Pakistan figured in Parliament on Tuesday with BJP leader Rajnath Singh forcefully raising the religious and human rights violations the community faces in the neighbouring country.

Punjab Congress has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking for government intervention to provide Hindus refuge from Pakistan. Mulayam Singh Yadav of SP said the issue should be dealt with on a humanitarian level and India should not stay silent.

The latest group of 14 Hindus came via Attari on Monday, after 250 came over last week. They bring harrowing tales of harassment, violence and death at the hands of Islamists.

These migrations are embarrassing to Pakistan. In his Independence Day speech, Pakistan army chief General Kayani made a pointed reference to the security of minorities. He recalled that in the original mandate, Pakistan was to be an Islamic welfare state. Without a specific reference to the Hindus, Kayani said minorities in Pakistan should be free to live and work and practice their faith without fear.

The Hindus who crossed the border on Monday said they would flout their promise to return and would stay on in India. They alleged severe persecution, harassment, forced conversion, extortion and abduction and forced marriages of young girls by Islamist groups in Pakistan. The groups are mainly residents of Sindh and Balochistan. About 250 Hindus were briefly detained at the border by Pakistani authorities. They were allowed to enter India after signing a commitment to return, and told not to criticize Pakistan while in India.

Government sources said these Hindus had been given visas like other regular Pakistanis, as this is generally the time of the year when they arrive on pilgrimage around Janmashtami.

The issue is certain to feature in the discussions when foreign minister S M Krishna travels to Islamabad for talks with his counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar. In May, Krishna had told Parliament, "It is the responsibility of the government of Pakistan to discharge its constitutional obligations towards its citizens, including those from the minority community." But the migrations might change the issue.

The trials and tribulations of Pakistani Hindus came into limelight when a 14-year-old girl, Manisha Kumari, was kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam and married off. Earlier this year, Pakistan's Supreme court heard the case of three women, Rinkie, Asha and Lata, who allegedly faced the same fate. Last month, a 20-year-old, Sunil "converted" to Islam on TV, during Ramzan, to the delight of a cheering audience.

India willing to give asylum to Hindus from Pak - The Times of India

 

[Shinigami]

About 250 Hindus were briefly detained at the border by Pakistani authorities. They were allowed to enter India after signing a commitment to return, and told not to criticize Pakistan while in India.

 

[IND151]

^^ i don't think they will go back

GOI may not force them to go back otherwise BJP will again accuse Congress of being anti Hindu

plus elections are coming in 2 years

 

[Matrixx]

After 65 years .....still minorities are not safe and having 3rd grade status in Pakistan.....

 

[phylumchordata]

^ wait till the ball rolls against you and whole argument becomes Hindu vs Muslim stuff. common practice of Pakistani members here.

 

[cyphercide]

What's the fuss all about? If India can host Rohingya/ex-terrorist Kashmiri Muslims,the exiled government of Tibet and illegal immigrants of every variety- Why should accepting Hindu families pose as such a brainteaser?

 

[Parul]

These Hindus had stayed back in Pakistan in good faith and have been let down by that country, let us welcome them with open arms, and help them start their lives once again.

 

[joekrish]

It's going to be tough for rest of the Hindus to come in to India, I don't think the Pakistani authorities are going to be happy if the current group of Hindus decide not to return to Pakistan.

 

[harpoon]

^ wait till the ball rolls against you and whole argument becomes Hindu vs Muslim stuff. common practice of Pakistani members here.

Why blame the Pakistanis. We have 'secular' Indian members here who wants to accept either all BD illegal migrants or turn back all of them..Hindu & Muslim included just bcs India is a secular country. They are not going to accept the plight of Hindus in Pak & BD.

 

[INDIC]

These people deserve asylum in India.

 

[Fireurimagination]

Just be careful of 007s (I mean spies) within them

 

[Rig Vedic]

This should not be made a precedent for other cases. India has an obligation towards minorities in PK and BD that it does not have towards the majority community in those countries, nor towards minorities from any other nation like Burma.

 

[HZR2011]

Good move by India..

 

[danger007]

Just be careful of 007s (I mean spies) within them

are you talking about me

 

[Hindustani]

Hindus from Pakistan flee to India, citing religious persecution

Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images - Pakistani Hindu pilgrims arrive at the India-Pakistan border post in Wagah on Saturday.

NEW DELHI — More than 250 Pakistani Hindus have arrived in India over the past two weeks bearing tales of religious persecution, according to Indian border officials, fueling perceptions of growing discrimination against minorities in Pakistan.

The Pakistani Hindus, who came by road and rail with valid pilgrimage visas from Sindh, Baluchistan and Punjab provinces, have reported incidents of kidnapping, looting and forced religious conversion, the officials said.

Pakistan has 2.7 million Hindus in a majority-Muslim population of 180 million. They represent those who chose to stay after the sectarian blood bath that accompanied the 1947 partition of the subcontinent at the end of British rule.

The Pakistani Hindus’ allegations of persecution and expressed desire to stay in India pose a diplomatic quandary for the New Delhi government: Should India welcome them and open the floodgates? Or should it stay aloof, treating this as an internal Pakistani matter — and shielding itself from allegations of Muslim mistreatment in India.

“As far as we know, the families have come on a pilgrimage. So far, no family that is based in Pakistan has approached us for asylum,” Preneet Kaur, India’s deputy foreign minister, told the Headlines Today news channel in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Kaur noted that India and Pakistan had agreed in 1972 not to interfere in each other’s internal affairs. But she added, “However, we do request Pakistan, on humanitarian grounds, to look after the interests of minorities.”

India does not have a national refugee law; it deals with arrivals from neighboring countries on an ad hoc basis. Thousands of Pakistani Hindus who have come here in the past two decades have still not received Indian citizenship.

But the country may be unable to maintain that detachment for long, in view of the steady stream of Pakistani Hindus who say they are being harassed by new Muslim fundamentalist groups in Pakistan’s Sindh province.

“They barge into our homes in broad daylight, snatch jewelry from the women, money from our shops, and kidnap Hindu girls and convert them to Islam,” Mukesh Kumar Ahuja, a young Hindu from Pakistan, told Indian reporters in the northern state of Punjab. “We want India to let us stay and ease visa rules for our relatives who are still in Pakistan.”

Tejinder Goggi, a hotel owner and peace activist in Punjab, said he saw at least 100 Pakistani Hindus arrive last week with bedding, pots and pans stuffed into jute sacks and cardboard cartons.

“They are worried about their daughters because 20 girls were kidnapped and married to Muslim boys in the past year,” Goggi said.

An immigration officer said that only half of those who have come to India in the past year have returned to Pakistan.

“They come for pilgrimage on a 30-day visa, and they keep extending it,” the officer said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive issue. “They produce medical certificates to say they are ill, or report a marriage or death in the family.”

On Monday, several Indian lawmakers raised the issue in Parliament and urged the government to take it up with Pakistan.

“If persecuted Hindus don’t come to India, where will they go?” asked Prakash Javadekar, spokesman for the Hindu nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.

Hindu protests have been growing in Pakistan. Last week, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari set up a three-member panel to address the Hindus’ grievances, and Interior Minister Rehman Malik has promised to examine the situation.

“The government will first look into the matter and then allow them to leave Pakistan,” Malik said of those seeking visas. He did, however, question why India had given such a large number of visas to the Hindus.

Not all Pakistani Hindus want to leave.

“I was born in Pakistan,” Kanhaiya Nagpal, a retired professor, said in a telephone interview from Karachi. “I like to live here. This is my country.”

Nagpal said he had participated in a demonstration organized by several Hindu groups Monday to protest harassment. But he added: “The solution is not to run away. If the rule of law is followed in Pakistan, then everything will be all right.”


Nisar Mehdi in Karachi contributed to this report.

Hindus from Pakistan flee to India, citing religious persecution - The Washington Post