Rising tide of Islamophobia in India: Pakistan condemns attacks on mosques, Muslims in Tripura

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan strongly condemned the vandalisation of several mosques, houses and shops of Muslims by radical Hindutva mobs in Tripura - India, and urged the international community to play its role to stop the rising tide of Islamophobia and attacks against minorities particularly, Muslims in India.

“These senseless attacks are continuing since last week. 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,” Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said on Friday.

He said that 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,” he said.

He said that 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.

According to media reports, tensions were high in parts of India’s northeastern Tripura state, on Friday, after a string of attacks against Muslims what the reports suggested was in retaliation of the violence against Hindus in Bangladesh earlier this month.

The mob in the BJP-led State vandalized one mosque, several shops and homes belonging to Muslims on Tuesday.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021