Denouncing the recent remarks made by Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir during a meeting with senior Shia clerics of his country that those sympathetic towards Iran should relocate to the neighbouring country, India on Friday said such comments are not isolated incidents but are part of Pakistan’s systemic victimisation of its minorities, including the Shia minority.
Addressing a weekly media briefing in the national capital, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said such comments reflect on Pakistan’s long standing pattern of persecution against minorities.”The shrinking numbers of minorities in Pakistan over several decades reflect the kind of fear, persecution, oppression and neglect that they have had to endure at the hands of the Pakistani state,” he said.
“I need not elaborate on the abysmal record of Pakistan when it comes to the protection of human rights of its minorities, which is also very well documented,” Jaiswal added.