Indian govt patronises extremism, encourages violence against Muslims: Ahsan Iqbal

Federal Minister for Planning, Development, and Special Initiatives, Ahsan Iqbal said on Wednesday that the Indian government was patronising extremism and had been encouraging prejudice and violence against Muslims across India.

Addressing the “First International Islamic Conference on Peace” organised at the Islamic International University Islamabad (IIUI), the minister said the life of Muslims had been made miserable in India, adding that they were being deprived of their religious identity.

He said the extreme examples of extremism could be witnessed in India where the extremist elements were being patronised by the Indian government to target the Muslims across the country.

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The minister said extremism was a world phenomenon, be it the killing of Muslims in the New Zealand Mosque by an Australian national or other similar incidents in the United States of America, where Muslims and migrants were targeted during the tenure of the last regime.

He termed the Russia-Ukraine conflict an example of the clash of civilisations that has not only affected the confronting parties but the whole world as it disturbed the supply chain and triggered inflation of edible oil and wheat.

The minister said that in today’s world, conflicts do not have only a local impact rather they affect the whole world.

He said, Muslims, who constitute 20 percent of the world population, were the worst victims of extremism as 60 percent of conflicts happened in Muslim countries while 70 to 80 percent of losses caused by these conflicts were inflicted on Muslim countries.