ISLAMABAD, Oct 30, (Asia Free Press): Pakistan on Friday strongly condemned the vandalisation of several mosques, houses, and shops of Muslims by radical Hindutva mobs in Tripura, India.
In a statement on Friday, the foreign ministry said these senseless attacks have been continuing since last week, and the state machinery has reportedly not only failed to protect Muslims and their properties but remained non-responsive to desperate calls for help by the local Muslim organisations.
“It is reprehensible that the Hindutva driven BJP-RSS combine has a track record of conducting massacres and systemic human rights violations of Muslims under its watch, from Gujarat in 2002 to New Delhi in 2020. In today’s India, there is little space for minorities and their way of life,” said the foreign ministry spokesman.
“It is equally condemnable that targeted and brutal eviction of Muslims from their decades-old homes in Assam continues unabated.”
Pakistan calls upon the international community to play its role to stop the rising tide of Islamophobia and attacks against minorities, particularly Muslims in India, and ensure their safety, security and well-being and protection of their places of worship and heritage sites.
During the last four days, at least seven people were killed, several mosques vandalised, and hundreds of houses and shops of Muslims were destroyed by extremist Hindus belonging to the ruling party BJP and the hardline Hindu organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) – a close ally of the BJP.
“Some VHP activists participating in the rally ransacked a mosque in the Chamtilla area. Later, three houses and three shops were ransacked and two shops were set on fire in the Rowa Bazar area, around 800 yards from the first incident,” Soubhik Dey, a senior police official in Panisagar, told BBC.
Tripura is encircled on three sides by Bangladesh and connected by a thin corridor to the neighbouring state of Assam. The state has been run by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2018 after 25 years of Communist rule.
Opposition parties have blamed the “politically motivated fringe elements” close to the BJP for the attacks on Muslims.
Sushmita Dev, an MP from the regional Trinamul Congress party, told the BBC that the BJP was trying to use the recent violence in Bangladesh to “polarise” the voters ahead of the state’s municipal elections in the state November.
