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Regular-article-logo Friday, 26 April 2024

Pakistan's former legislator from Imran Khan's party seeks asylum in India

The former legislator claimed that minorities are deprived of rights in the neighbouring country

PTI Chandigarh Published 10.09.19, 08:07 AM
Recently, a Sikh girl was forcibly converted to Islam on gunpoint in Pakistan and then married to a Muslim man

Recently, a Sikh girl was forcibly converted to Islam on gunpoint in Pakistan and then married to a Muslim man iStock

A former legislator from Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has sought asylum in India, claiming that minorities were deprived of their rights in the neighbouring nation.

Baldev Kumar, 43, along with his wife and two children came to India last month and are presently staying at Khanna in Punjab's Ludhiana district.

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'I have come here to seek asylum and will request (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi Sahib to help us,' Kumar told reporters in Khanna on Tuesday.

When asked why he left his country and came to India, Kumar said, 'the whole world is watching what the situation is in Pakistan now. We were expecting from (Pakistan PM Imran) Khan Sahib that when he came to power, the fate of Pakistan will change.' He claimed that Imran failed to do so.

Kumar was a former Member of the Provincial Assembly from Barikot seat in Khyber's Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.

'You are watching the situation in Pakistan and I am also watching the same. That day our Sikh girl was kidnapped. Such things should not take place,' said the former legislator.

Notably, in Pakistan's Punjab province, a teenage Sikh girl, daughter of a Gurdwara priest there, was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam at gunpoint before she was married to a Muslim man, her family had alleged.

A video of the girl's family had gone viral on social media in which one of her family members could be seen alleging that a group of men attacked their house, abducted the Sikh girl and forcibly converted her to Islam.

Kumar said, 'had minorities been getting rights in Pakistan, such situation should not have arisen,' adding that he has requested his other family members to leave Pakistan.

Kumar said that there were several families in Sindh and Nankana Sahib, who told him that if he got asylum there, they would also try to leave Pakistan.

India had expressed strong concerns over the incidents of forced conversion and asked the neighbouring country to take remedial action to stop such cases.

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