ISLAMABAD: The foreign office said on Wednesday Islamabad “strongly” denounced the Indian government’s move to observe August 14, Pakistan’s Independence Day, as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day.’
The first-ever Partition Horrors Remembrance Day was announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year and will be observed this Sunday.
Pakistan marks August 14 as Independence Day each year to commemorate the birth of a new nation after the end of British Raj in 1947.
“True to its characteristic revisionist agenda, the BJP-RSS led dispensation has again sought to hypocritically and one-sidedly invoke the tragic events and mass migration that occurred in the wake of Independence in 1947,” the foreign office said in a statement.
“It is deplorable that the BJP government, as part of its divisive political agenda, is wantonly attempting to play with the sentiments of the people through distorted interpretation of history.”
The foreign office said if Indian leaders really cared about the “agony, suffering and pain,” of partition, they would work to improve the conditions of the Muslims and other minorities in India.
“Today’s India is an undeclared ‘Hindu Rashtra’ that has no place or tolerance for other religious minorities, especially Muslims who are faced with discrimination, persecution and political and socio-economic exclusion,” the statement said.
“The Government of India is advised to desist from politicizing the events related to Independence and instead sincerely honor the memories of all those who sacrificed for a better future for all.”
The partition of colonial India into two states, mainly Hindu India and mostly Muslim Pakistan, at the end of British rule triggered one of the biggest mass migrations in history.
About 15 million Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs swapped countries in the political upheaval, marred by violence and bloodshed that cost more than a million lives.