ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday condemned the Indian government for a violent crackdown in New Delhi and Uttar Pradesh on students and activists protesting against India’s new citizenship law, which has been widely seen as anti-Muslim.
Qureshi said a tweet on Monday that he was “concerned about the brutal and indiscriminate use of force by the state on Indian Muslim students of Jamia Millia Islamia & Aligarh Muslim University, protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Bill.”
He cited the use of force as evidence that the Indian PM Narendra Modi’s government “continues to curb and undermine the rights of minorities” in accordance with its “Hindutva supremacist ideology.”
Reuters reported on Monday that protests over the new citizenship law based on religion spread to campuses where students clashed with police. Critics said the Hindu nationalist government was pushing a partisan agenda in conflict with the country’s founding as a secular republic.
Anger with Modi’s government was fueled by allegations of police brutality at Jamia Millia Islamia University on Sunday, when officers entered the campus in the capital New Delhi and fired tear gas to break up a protest. At least 100 people were wounded.
Many international human rights organizations and neutral observers even from within India have characterized the legislation as discriminatory against Muslims and unconstitutional.
“We reiterate that this Indian legislation is premised on a falsehood, both with regard to the alleged decline in non-Muslim population in Pakistan as well as their alleged persecution in the country,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry had said in a statement last week.
Pakistan condemns crackdown on Muslim students in India
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Pakistan condemns crackdown on Muslim students in India
- India’s new citizenship bill prompted widespread protests
- Violence against protesters is based on the “supremacist ideology” of India’s government, says Pakistani FM
Gunmen kill 3 Revolutionary Guards in Iranian province bordering Pakistan
- Iranian state media says attackers ambushed patrol in Sistan and Baluchistan province before fleeing
- Border region with Pakistan and Afghanistan has long seen militant and smuggling-related violence
TEHRAN: Gunmen killed three members of the Revolutionary Guard in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan near the Pakistan border, state media reported.
The Guard members were ambushed while patrolling near the city of Lar in a mountainous area about 1,125 kilometers (700 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
IRNA did not report whether any Guard members were injured in the attack.
The Revolutionary Guard is pursing the attackers it calls “terrorists,” but they remain at large. No group has taken responsibility for the attack, IRNA reported.
The province bordering Afghanistan and Pakistan, one of the least developed in Iran, has been the site of occasional deadly clashes involving militant groups, armed drug smugglers and Iranian security forces.
In August, Iran’s security forces killed 13 militants in three separate operations in the province a week after the group killed five policemen who were on patrol.
