ISLAMABAD: Pakistan expressed grave concerns on Sunday over confirmation of direct involvement of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) leadership in violence during the horrific Gujarat riots of 2002 that led to the death of over 2,000 Muslims, and urged the international community, particularly human rights activists and defenders of freedoms, to take notice of the past as well as ongoing atrocities in India.
Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch stated that the recent statement by the former chief minister of the Indian state of Gujarat, Shankersinh Vaghela, has confirmed Pakistan’s longstanding assertion that the BJP-led government under the-then chief minister of Gujarat — who is now the prime minister of India — was directly responsible for fomenting violence against and massacre of Muslims.
“This has been further corroborated indirectly by the Indian home minister, who recently claimed that those responsible for Gujarat riots had been ‘taught a lesson’ and ‘permanent peace’ had been established in Gujarat by BJP’s decisive actions... It is most deplorable that the crimes against humanity, targeting (of) Muslims, were perpetrated solely for BJP’s political gains,” she said.
Regrettably, the BJP once again seeks to cash in on its divisive policies two decades after the Gujarat tragedy, she said. Under the BJP rule, India’s treatment of its minorities, especially Muslims, has been discriminatory, degrading, and full of hate and violence, the FO spokesperson said.
In June this year, Mumtaz Baloch said, the Supreme Court of India handed a clean chit to the current prime minister, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat, over his role in the 2002 riots. The Supreme Court shut down as many as 11 petitions, including the one filed by the National Human Rights Commission of India, which sought an independent probe into the 2002 Gujarat riots.
“It is an undeniable fact that India’s incumbent prime minister had been banned from entering countries such as the United States till 2014, because of his abysmal human rights record as chief minister of the Gujarat state. Sadly, the entire Indian legal and administrative machinery is blindly pursuing the Hindutva-driven agenda of the ruling BJP-RSS nexus, where perpetrators of hate and violence are protected by law and enjoy exalted status, whereas religious minorities are constantly threatened and denied the freedom to practice their faith without fear, while their lives, property and places of worship remain under threat of violation.”
She added: “Pakistan urges upon India to immediately constitute an independent commission of inquiry to bring the culprits of the horrific Godhra incident, as well as the Gujarat riots, to justice,” she said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022