Gurdwara Nankana Sahib, where the first Guru of Sikhs, Guru Nanak, was born was attacked by a mob and pelted with stones on Friday before the police stepped, said media reports.
There is a "major difference between the condemnable Nankana incident and the ongoing attacks across India on Muslims and other minorities," said Khan on Twitter.
Comment: Nankana Sahib incident in Pakistan happened when the daughter of Sikh priest was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and got married to a Muslim. Subsequent protest by the Sikh priest's family resulted in Muslim mob throwing stones and threatening to rage the sikh shrine to ground. All sections of the Indian Govt., opposition parties, Sikh groups condemned the attack and protested in front of the Pakistan embassy in New Delhi. Pakistani govt. arrested the person responsible for it. With in few days, a Sikh youth has been killed in Peshawar, Pakistan, prompting Indian government to summon Pakistani High commissioner in New Delhi.
This will be a embarrassing event for the Imran Khan (and Indian opposition Parties who are protesting against Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) ) who criticized Modi for creating a reduced procedure for the persecuted religious minorities in Pakistan,Bangladesh and Afghanistan to become Indian citizens. India's Home minister Amit Shah compared the Nankana Sahib incident as a answer to the people who are protesting against(CAA).
"The former is against my vision & will find zero tolerance & protection from the govt incl police & judiciary (sic)," he tweeted, referring to the Nankana Sahib incident.
Khan claimed that Prime Minister Modi's "vision supports minorities oppression and the targeted attacks against Muslims." He also alleged that the Indian police, supported by the government, are leading attacks against Muslims.
Comment: There is no evidence of Muslims being attacked during Citizenship Amendment Act protests, though there is lot of verifiable reports of Muslim and opposition protesters destroying the public property. Modi vision of "New India" helped to uplift 271 million Indians to be out of poverty irrespective of their religion, reducing the corruption and other improvements.
© narendramodi.inFast paced Development under Modi as of December 2018
India has strongly condemned vandalism at the gurdwara and called upon the Pakistan government to take immediate steps to ensure the safety and security of the Sikh community there.
Comment: Religious discrimination in Pakistan is a real and serious issue for its minorities. This takes the form of abductions, forced religious conversions and abuse of blasphemy laws and destruction of non-muslim religious structures.
Religious discrimination in Pakistan
Attacks on religious minorities in Pakistan have claimed hundreds of lives of religious minorities, such as Pakistani Ahmadis, Hindus, Sufis and Christians.
Women belonging to minority communities have been targets of forced conversions and marriages. Forced conversion, rape, and forced marriages of Hindu women in Pakistan have recently become controversial in Pakistan.
A survey carried out by All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement Pakistan's revealed that out of 428 Hindu temples in Pakistan only around 20 survive today and they remain neglected by the Evacuee Trust Property Board which controls those while the rest had been converted for other uses.
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In May 2014, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, revealed in the National Assembly of Pakistan that around 5,000 Hindus are migrating from Pakistan to India every year.
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Forced conversions in Pakistan
Women belonging to religious minorities have been known to be victims of kidnapping and forced conversion to Islam.Amarnath Motumal who works for Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has stated that 20 to 25 Hindu girls were kidnapped and converted every month though the exact number is impossible to estimate. Sadiq Bhanbhro, Researcher on Public Health and Gender-Based Violence at Sheffield Hallam University commented he found reports of 286 girls forcibly converted from 2012 to 2017 in English-language dailies, though this number is likely higher. The 2019 Religious Minorities in Pakistan report compiled by Members of the European Parliament has stated that independent NGOs estimate every year at least 1,000 girls are forcibly converted to Islam, although the number may be probably more due to under-reporting.
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Firstly underage girls are abducted from her home or where they work, later reappearing after having been and married off to a Muslim. They are often raped and then forcibly converted to Islam. To prevent her from going back home or reporting the rape to the police, she is forcibly married to the perpetrator. Reports obtained by the NGO Global Human Rights Defense indicate that the perpetrators will often put a fake age of the girl on the marriage certificate to hide that she is underage. When the family of the girl try to report this to the police, they are often met by biased officers who refuse to file an FIR (First Information Report). The conversions are backed by powerful religious institutions and leaders who also offer incentives to people to convert. Moreover, the perpetrators will often force the victim to sign a report saying that she converted and married on her own free will, hindering the attempts of the family to have their girl returned to them. Additionally, the perpetrators will often file counter-suits against the victim's family for harassment and for attempting to convert the girl back to her former religion
Indian leaders cutting across party lines have condemned the mob attack, terming it as "cowardly" and "shameful".
Hundreds of protesters thronged the streets near the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi demanding that Islamabad provide adequate security to Sikh shrines and community members there.
Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandhak Committee (SGPC), the apex body which manages Sikh shrines in India, said it will send a four-member delegation to Pakistan to take stock of the situation and urged the Pakistan government to take stringent action against the culprits who attacked the gurdwara - one of the holiest sites in Sikhism.
Pakistan's Foreign Office on Friday rejected the media reports that Gurdwara Nanakana Sahib was desecrated in a mob attack, saying the birthplace of founder of Sikhism remains "untouched and undamaged" and the "claims of destruction" of one of the holiest Sikh shrines are "false".
Source: Press Trust of India
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