KARACHI:Pakistan Peoples Party MPA Sharmila Farooqui on Tuesday asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to adopt a positive human rights approach and stop Hindus from torturing Muslims and depriving them of jobs from informal sector on the pretext of baseless allegations that Muslims are spreading coronavirus in the country.
In a statement issued today, she said that a time, when whole world is struggling to fight coronavirus for saving humanity and their livelihood, Muslims in India are still being tortured, killed and made jobless in informal sector ruthlessly, which is grave human rights violation on the Earth. The UN should take notice of it and stop such acts in India, she said.
“Ali, a five-year-old boy, was severely tortured by a mob on the outskirts of New Delhi on the baseless allegation that he was spreading coronavirus after attending a public gathering of a Tabligi Jamaat. Muslims at many places in India have been forced by the mobs to close shops. In a village in Mangalore, posters came up stating that “no Muslim trader is allowed into the village till the coronavirus has completely gone away. Several Muslim truck drivers were beaten up by a mob in Arunachal Pradesh. Among the many rumours about Muslims floating around, one was not to accept any cash from Muslims while many religious people are being forced into isolation by the police which is against the human rights,” the PPP MPA said.
Sharmila said the blame that Muslims are spreading coronavirus in India is a new conspiracy to bring more physical and economic tortures on Muslims. “The Muslim minority is already most deprived of community in the Indian jobs market. The new conspiracy is a bid to further weaken the Muslims in India to remain in worst poverty. In India, Hindus have a worker- population ratio of 41%, Christians 41.9%, Buddhists 43.1%, Sikhs 36.3%, Jains 35.5 % and for Muslims it is lowest at 32.6%, she said referring to a report.
The PPP MPA said that India government and its people had been spreading hatred against Muslims in not only in their country but also in Azad and Jammu Kashmir. There have been several instances of Hindus religious violence against Muslims since the partition of India.
“Many of these acts of violence are institutionally supported, particularly by political parties and organizations connected to the Hindu nationalist volunteer organization, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiv Sena are also supporting violence against Muslims as a part of their larger election strategy,” she said.
She said India’s recent Citizenship (Amendment) Act was also bid to deprive many Muslims of the Indian citizenship. Many Muslims have been killed for opposing this law. The Indian Constitution that was implemented in 1950 guaranteed citizenship to all of the country’s residents at the commencement of the constitution, and made no distinction on the basis of religion, but Modi government had made amendment to target Muslims, which will never be allowed, she said.