Hindu-Sikh families continue to flee Pakistan, seek Indian citizenship

President of Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa said that the has apprised the Union Home Minister about this situation.

According to a television news channel report, these Pakistani Hindus came on a visitor’s visa but some of them claimed that they felt very unsafe in Pakistan and hoped to get Indian citizenship. Sirasa, who was at the border to receive these families who 'fled’ Pakistan, said that he would request Union Home Minister Amit Shah to grant them Indian citizenship.

He said in a twitter message, “We rescued four families from Pakistan that were living in a hell-like situation. These families say that they would prefer death than going back to that hell. We will meet Amit Shah and urge him to listen to the woes of these families and grant them Indian citizenship at the earliest.”

Meanwhile, the officials at the border claimed that the number of Hindus traveling to India has increased significantly over the past month. Most of them crossing over to India on Monday belonged to Sindh and Karachi areas. Some of them carried luggage and said they will seek asylum in India.

One of the Pakistani Hindus on the condition of anonymity said after the enactment of the new citizenship law, Hindus and Sikhs living in Pakistan and Afghanistan were “optimistic” of getting Indian citizenship. Most of them were traveling to Rajasthan to meet their relatives, they said.

“We are not feeling safe in Pakistan. Our girls feel insecure as they fear that they could be kidnapped any time by hardliners while police watch as mute spectators. Our girls cannot walk freely in the north-west area of Pakistan,” said a woman.

Two more women, without disclosing their names, told the media that kidnapping of Hindu girls had become a routine affair in Pakistan and no family dared to lodge a complaint with police against fundamentalists.