800 Pakistani Hindu migrants return from India

NEW DELHI/LAHORE: Arou­nd 800 Pakistani Hindus in Rajasthan, who came to India seeking citizenship on the basis of alleged religious persecution, returned to the Pakistan in 2021, reports an Indian newspaper on quoting a group that advocates for the rights of Pakistani minority migrants in India.

The Hindu reported Seemant Lok Sangathan (SLS) as stating that many of the Pakistani Hindus returned to Pakistan after finding no progress in their citizenship application.

Their return is said to be embarrassing for India where the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) initiated an online citizenship application process in 2018. The MHA also made 16 Collectors in seven States to accept online applications to grant citizenship to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jain and Buddhists from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The religion-based citizenship law has been challenged by India’s opposition groups. A bureaucratic red-tape is a hindrance. Though the entire process is online, the newspaper said, the portal does not accept Pakistani passports that have expired, forcing people seeking refuge to rush to the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi to get their passports renewed for a hefty sum.

“If it is a family of ten, then they end up spending more than Rs1 lakh at the Pakistan High Commission to get the passports renewed. These people come to India amid great financial hardships and to cough up such a high amount of money is not feasible,” an SLS official was quoted as saying.

The MHA informed the Rajya Sabha on December 22, 2021, that according to the online module, as many as 10,635 applications for citizenship were pending with the Ministry as on December 14, of which 7,306 applicants were from Pakistan.

According to Mr Singh, there are 25,000 Pakistani Hindus in Rajasthan alone who have been awaiting citizenship, some for more than two decades. Many of them have applied in the offline mode.

In 2015, the MHA am­ended the Citizenship Rules and legalised the stay of foreign migrants belonging to six communities, who had entered India on or before December 2014 due to persecution on grounds of religion, by exempting them from the provisions of the Passport Act and the Foreigners Act as their passports had expired.

Talking to The News, Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a member of National Assembly on reserve seat of minorities and Chief Patron of the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC), said India has refused to keep its promises which forced Pakistani Hindus migrants to return.

He said that now Pakistan is safe for minority than India as Pakistan had taken more steps for the protection of people of minority and their religious places. He said that Pakistan is a minority-friendly country. The issues of security and forced conversion now stand addressed, said Vankwani.

Ravi Dawani General Secretary of All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat (APHP) said Pakistani Hindus were treated as Pakistanis and were not accepted locally. He said the migrating Hindus faced discrimination in every walk of life. He said Pakistani Hindus’ children were denied school admissions, and no economic opportunities not created for them, forcing them to return.

He further added that majority of Hindus had gone from Tharparkar and Mitthi (Sindh) to Rajasthan, India. He said the situation has changed in Pakistan as government did a lot for the protection of Hindus.

He said that when Ghotki Mandir and Mandi in Rahim Yar Khan were desecrated, the government of Pakistan lodged FIRs under Section 295 against the accused. Dawani termed it a great step for the protection of worship places of Hindus. Dawani said, “We as a community will help returnees in their rehabilitations as they are sons of soils. We welcomethem on their holy land.”

Kapil Dev, a Hindu rights activist, said that majority of Hindu migrants belong to Sindh — the land of Sufies. He said the Hindus who went to India were secular by nature, adding Modi’s fascist policies and philosophy of Hindutva frustrated them, and forced them to return to Pakistan.

He said that they had gone for social and economic security but they could not get anything. Dev said the Pakistani Hindus were not allowed to open bank accounts or purchase properties, and were denied citizenship.

He lamented his relatives had purchased some properties in the names of their relatives already living in India, adding the properties were not handed over them. Dev said local Indians deceived Pakistani Hindus.

He said Indian government had failed to provide better economic opportunities and social security to Pakistani Hindu migrants, adding Indian policies towards Pakistanis Hindus were not favourbale.