PPP senator demands sanctions on India for violating religious freedoms

Former interior minister and Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior Senator A Rehman Malik has urged the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to advise the United Nations to constitute a high-powered commission to investigate gross religious violence in India and place India under international sanctions until the safety of life of religious minorities is ensured.

Addressing a news conference on Thursday, he said that he was exposing the "Ranga Billa of India" for their crimes against humanity, Ranga being Modi and Billa Amit Shah.

He said that despite being infamous for their brutalities against religious minorities, mass killings and killing of their political opponents in fake encounters, the two partners in crime were ruling India.

Malik said that they killed witnesses, investigators and judges and managed acquittal. They were in power today through the power of guns.

In his letter to the chairperson of the USCIRF, he said, "I urge you in the interest of humanity and religious freedom, that a high-powered commission may be proposed by the UN to investigate these violations, and to place India under international sanctions until the safety of life of Muslims and other minorities is ensured."

Malik appreciated the USCIRF for its call for global blacklisting of India. He said in the letter, "I would like to compliment and appreciate the Chair and honourable members of USCIRF for their excellent and persistent deliberations in identifying the crimes against humanity, religious violations and damaging interfaith harmony by Indian government."

However, he expressed that mere call for global blacklisting of India would not be enough, and that international sanctions should be imposed on India.

In his press conference, he made public the detailed letter he had written to the chairperson of the USCIRF in which he has exposed the religious violence by India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his partner in crime, Amit Shah.

While exposing the unprecedented brutalities of Narednra Modi and Amit Shah, he writes, "I without going into further details would like to reiterate that Narendra Modi did not cease his persecution of Indian Muslims and continued to brutally oppress innocent Kashmiris and other minorities after becoming prime minister."

He wrote, "Using the Indian security forces, other government organs of India including RSS, Narendra Modi further unleashed his reign of terror by introducing verifiable draconian measures to increase violations against the Muslim community in Kashmir and rest of India."

The letter reads that motives behind the most recent moves of PM Narendra Modi were to further victimize religious minorities in India as per the ideology of the RSS.

He said those moves included the scrapping of the status of Kashmir by revoking Article 375 and 35-A, issuance of New Domicile Law for held Kashmir to allow settlement of non-Kashmiris including RSS in Kashmir, imposition of CAA and NRC that paves way of increased inhuman persecution of targeted minority groups are all parts of RSS ideology too."

Senator A Rehman Malik further added, "The unabated atrocities by the RSS against innocent Muslim majority in Kashmir, Muslims in other parts of India are morphing into a communal cleansing through genocide, and exhibit the worst example of religious persecution in modern history. The Muslim Kashmiris are under curfew for the last seven months, and it is one of the most glaring religious violations by the Indian state run by the RSS."

Senator Rehman Malik also gave details of the fake encounters carried out on the directions of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah as then chief minister and home minister of Gujrat respectively.

He writes, "Several journalists with conscience were courageous enough to speak out against the gross violations by Indian government-patronized RSS, during the engineered massacre of Muslims in Gujrat, following the Godhra train incident in 2002."

He also referred to a well-known Indian investigative journalist, Rana Ayyub, who, in her book "Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover Up", has exposed the involvement of Amit Shah in killings of many Muslims and political opponents including murder of Mr and Mrs Sohrabuddin Shaikh, witnesses to the murder of Tulsiram Prajapati and Azam Khan, murder of home minister of Gujrat Haren Panday and the judge of CBI, Justice Brijgopal Harkishan Loya, etc.

He quoted few abstracts from her book in the letter and urged the chairman of the USCIRF to investigate and record statements of Rana Ayyub and other eyewitnesses which may be made part of the USCIRF Report.

He said that Rana Ayyub has a lot of evidences against Amit Shah, but due to threats to her life, she couldn't make those evidences public.

Senator Rehman Malik said, "To meet the ends of justice, I request you that investigative journalist, Ms Rana Ayyub, along with other living witnesses, may be provided security and protection and invited to offer their evidence and reveal the facts that led to the carnage in Gujrat, now remembered as the Muslim massacre."

He adds that it would be in the interest of justice if the head of the Aam Aadmi Party, Arvind Kejriwal, is also called as a witness along with a few other victims who suffered at the hands of the RSS to record their statements for this honourable committee.