Pakistan condemns 'senseless attacks' against Muslims by Hindu extremists in India

Pakistan has strongly condemned vandalisation of several mosques, houses and shops of Muslims by radical Hindutva mobs in Tripura, 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 organizations,” says a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry of Pakistan.

“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,” the statement reads.

“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,” the statement concludes. 

Tensions Rise In Tripura After Attacks Against Muslims

Tensions are high in parts of Tripura state after a string of attacks against minority Muslims, seen as retaliation for the violence against Hindus in neighbouring Bangladesh earlier this month.

Police said mosques, several shops and homes belonging to Muslims in the northern part of the state were vandalised.

Muslim leaders said that Hindu mobs attacked mosques and torched their properties following a protest rally led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or VHP, a hard-line Hindu nationalist group with ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

Vinod Bansal, the VHP’s national spokesperson, denied that its members were involved in the attacks. “We did not attack anyone. We were peacefully protesting against anti-Hindu attacks in Bangladesh,” he said.

“Some troublemakers are hellbent on disturbing peace and communal harmony in Tripura,” said Senior Police Officer Bhanupada Chakraborty, adding that the situation was under control.

Mohammad Salam, a Muslim cleric in Panisagar town in northern Tripura, said hundreds of VHP members chanting anti-Muslim slogans stormed a mosque and ransacked it. He said they also burnt several Muslim properties. “We are living in fear since then,” Salam said.

The fresh attacks are a jarring reminder of the rising religious tensions in India. “There is a fear psychosis among the Muslims in Tripura after the incidents,” said Islamuddin, a Muslim opposition lawmaker from Tripura who goes by one name. “The state authorities could have reacted a little more faster to control the situation.”

On Thursday, the country’s main opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi condemned the attacks. “Those who indulge in hatred and violence in the name of Hinduism are not Hindus but hypocrites. For how long will the government pretend to be blind and deaf?” he wrote on Twitter.