India rejects Pak’s claims on minority attacks, cites its ‘abysmal record’
New Delhi: India on Monday firmly rejected remarks from Pakistan over the treatment of minorities in the country, calling the allegations baseless and countering them by pointing to what it described as Pakistan’s long-standing record of violence and discrimination against religious communities. New Delhi said Islamabad’s comments amounted to finger-pointing that could not distract from what it termed a well-documented pattern of abuse of minorities across Pakistan.
Responding to media queries, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India had taken note of the comments made by Pakistan’s foreign office and dismissed them outright. “We reject the reported remarks from a country whose abysmal record on this front speaks for itself,” Jaiswal said. He added that Pakistan’s “horrific and systemic victimisation of minorities of various faiths is a well established fact” and asserted that “no amount of finger pointing will obfuscate it.”
The response came after Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Andrabi raised concerns about what he described as attacks on minorities in India. Speaking in Islamabad, Andrabi said the “persecution of minorities in India is a matter of deep concern” and referred to what he called recent condemnable incidents, including alleged vandalism during Christmas celebrations and campaigns targeting Muslims. Pakistani media reports quoted him as urging the international community to take note of these incidents.
Indian officials rejected these claims as unfounded and said criticism from Islamabad did not alter the realities on the ground in Pakistan. In its rebuttal, New Delhi highlighted Pakistan’s own history of communal violence and discrimination, marked by mob attacks, restrictive laws and social exclusion affecting several religious groups.
Members of the Ahmadi community in Pakistan have faced prolonged persecution driven by state policies and societal hostility. Christian populations have also been repeatedly affected by communal violence. One of the most serious episodes occurred in 2009 in Gojra town in Punjab, where coordinated attacks on Christian neighbourhoods led to multiple deaths and injuries.
Hindu minorities have similarly been targeted during periods of communal tension. In 2020, a Hindu temple in Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was attacked and vandalised during a violent flare up, underscoring the vulnerability of minority places of worship.
India’s statement underlined that such incidents form part of a broader pattern in Pakistan, and maintained that attempts to deflect attention by raising allegations against India would not change the established record of minority rights violations across the border.
