Pakistan has strongly condemned blasphemous social media post against Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) by an Indian Hindu extremist.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office (FO) on Wednesday, lodged strong protest with Indian High Commission in Islamabad over the issue of blasphemous content posted by an Indian Hindu extremist in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
“The offensive post against Islam has hurt Muslims and reflects the rising Islamophobia and targeting of the minority communities in India,” read the statement issued by Foreign Office.
Pakistan also condemned the response by Indian authorities which failed to address the grievances of the Muslim community and instead used brute force on the peaceful crowd.
“The Indian police instead of preventing this hate crime against Muslims and Islam, used brute force, killed at least three protesters, and injured many more. As an added injustice, the Muslim community in the area is being falsely framed for alleged vandalism and assault on police personnel,” the statement added.
Furthermore, Pakistan has highlighted that the rising incidents of religious hate crime in India are a direct and inescapable consequence of the RSS-BJP combine’s extremist ideology of ‘Hindutva’.
Foreign Office has urged Indian authorities to investigate the incident and take immediate action against the perpetrators of religious hatred.
Meanwhile, international community, United Nations and various other relevant international organizations have also been urged to play their role against the rising tide of Islamophobia in India and ensure practical steps for the protection and religious rights of minorities in India.
The development comes as earlier, large number of peaceful Muslim protesters had gathered in front of a police station in Bangaluru, India to demand legal action and arrest of the individual responsible for the blasphemous social media post against Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W).
The police however, refused to arrest ‘Naveen’ accused individual – a relative of a local Hindu politician and elected member of parliament, and resorted to baton charge to disperse the crowd.
At least three people are reported to have been killed along with several wounded in the clashes between police and protesters, whereas more than 100 have been arrested by Indian police.
