We’ll show Modi how to treat minorities: Imran
lahore — Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday said he will “show” the Narendra Modi government “how to treat minorities” amid a controversy over Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah’s remarks on mob violence in India.
Naseeruddin finds himself at the centre of a major controversy over his remarks on the spate of mob lynching cases in India following the killing of a policeman in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr district earlier this month.
Addressing an event to highlight the 100-day achievements of the Punjab government in Lahore, Imran said his government is taking steps to ensure that religious minorities in Pakistan get their due rights.
Imran said his government will make it sure that the minorities feel safe, protected and have equal rights in ‘New Pakistan’. “We will show the Modi government how to treat minorities... Even in India, people are saying that minorities are not being treated as equal citizens,” he said referring to Naseeruddin’s statement.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Sambit Patra said: “Pakistan is ‘terroristan’. It gave shelter to (Osama Bin) Laden. It need not teach us anything.” —
new delhi — The BJP on Sunday lashed out at Pakistan Prime Minster Imran Khan over his barb at India on treatment of minorities, terming his country “a land of atrocities against minorities” who have been “persecuted” there since its birth in 1947.
Minorities Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi used a Hindi proverb and described Imran’s comments as a case of a cat going on a pilgrimage after eating 100 mice (Sau chuhe khake bill Haj ko chali).
In hard-hitting remarks against Pakistan, Naqvi said that number of minorities like Hindus, Sikhs and Christians have fallen by almost 90 per cent in that country since its birth in 1947 as they were hounded by Islamic fundamentalists in collusion with its government.
Unlike Pakistan, where minorities were killed, forced to convert or persecuted out of the country, in India they have grown and are an equal partner in development, Naqvi asserted. In the neighbouring country, minorities are barely two to three per cent of its population, he said.
Targeting Imran, Naqvi named a number of popular Indian artistes, including Yusuf Khan better known as Dilip Kumar, and Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan, and noted that generations of Indians have admired them. “Can Imran Khan name a single Pakistani artiste who has come from a minority community and been liked as much as these actors are in India,” Naqvi said. —