Over 100 voters of village called "Pakistan" in Bihar's Purnea district ready to vote for BJP to help Modi get elected. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
Over 250 residents, including more than 100 voters, of a village called “Pakistan” in the Inidan state of Bihar are expected to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on April 24, The Times of India reported on Monday.
“We want Narendra Modi to become PM,” said Hira Hembrum, a middle aged villager. Most of the villagers who live in abject poverty and without basic amenities support Hembrum’s view, the TOI reported.
Tucked away between the border of Bihar and Bengal, Pakistan is a remote village in Singhiya panchayat, about 30 km from Purnea town, the district headquarters.
Interestingly, there is not a single Muslim family in this Pakistan, which has mostly Santhal tribal households, neither are there any mosques in the village.
Another villager, Haldu Murmu, was quoted in local media as saying that “people in Pakistan are keen to vote for BJP to see Modi as PM,” adding that the villagers want to vote Modi to oppose neighbouring Pakistan’s attempts to disrupt peace.
How it got its name
Elders in the village said that the village was named soon after India’s partition in 1947.
Sikhs and Hindus had named their village Pakistan in the hope that their Muslim friends, who fled during the partition to then-East Pakistan, will return one day.
“Many Muslims who earlier lived here chose to leave for East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), when the country was partitioned. We decided then that the village could be named in their memory,” one elderly villager said.
However, the village is now dominated by anti-Pakistan sentiment.
Murmu recalled that after theMumbai attacks that left 166 people dead in 2008, the villagers had even considered changing the name of their village.
“When Ajmal Kasab was hanged to death two years ago, villagers celebrated by distributing sweets, singing folk songs and dancing,” Murmu said.
Pakistani parliamentarians had discovered the Pakistan in India in 2012. They had proclaimed that they were ‘pleasantly surprised’ to see how a majority of Indians supported peace between the neighbours.
A Pakistan where people want Modi as PM of India – The Express Tribune
