Islamabad (TDI): Pakistan has expressed serious concern over the alarming rise in Islamophobic incidents across India.
Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said on Saturday that Pakistan urges the Indian government to uphold the rights and safety of all its nationals, regardless of faith.
He said that the targeting of Muslims through hate speech, discriminatory measures, and state complicity is an issue of grave concern for the global community.
After the deadly Pahalgam attack that killed at least tourists, targeting of Muslims by Hindu extremists has intensified in India.
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The Pahalgam incident also triggered military confrontation between Pakistan and India. Earlier this month, Pakistan’s military launched a large-scale retaliatory action, named “Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos”, and targeted multiple Indian military targets across India.
A series of anti-Muslim hate incidents have been reported across India in the last one month.
Since the April 22 attack, at least 184 anti-Muslim hate incidents have been reported countrywide in India, as per Association for Protection of Civil Rights, a New-Delhi-based organization.
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Three killers, assaults, threats, vandalism, verbal abuse, intimidation, harassment, and over half of the crimes allegedly involved hate speech. As per the group, more than one hundred of the incidents had the Pahalgam attack as a “triggering factor”.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
