ISLAMABAD: The opposition PPP has submitted a resolution to the National Assembly secretariat, urging the government to highlight anti-Pakistan activities of India’s far-right political group Shiv Sena at the international level and get it declared an extremist organisation.

The resolution was submitted by five members of the PPP on Thursday --- three days after Shiv Sena activists stormed the headquarters of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) just before Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Shaharyar Khan was to meet BCCI chief Shashank Manohar to discuss a bilateral series in December.

The Sena activists had crashed through the gates of the BCCI office in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, shouted anti-Pakistan slogans and held placards that read “Shaharyar Khan go back”.

Take a look: Shiv Sena activists storm BCCI HQ over Shaharyar-Manohar meeting

Shiv Sena also threatened to stop Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar from officiating in the fifth and final One-Day International between India and South Africa to be played ain Mumbai on Sunday.

According to PPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Khan Babar, his party also plans to raise the issue in the Senate. But it has not yet moved any parliamentary instrument for the purpose.

Party submits resolution to National Assembly secretariat

The PPP resolution condemns “mistreatment” of PCB officials by Shiv Sena activists and calls upon the government to formally register its protest over the incident after summoning the Indian high commissioner to the Foreign Office.

“The house... vehemently condemns the recent chain of incidents of hostility against Pakistani nationals on diplomatic and cultural fronts,” says the resolution, the text of which was released by the office of the leader of opposition in the National Assembly.

“The house appeals (to) the government to fervently take up this issue internationally and get Shiv Sena declared an extremist organisation,” it reads.

The resolution carries the signatures of legislators Imran Zafar Leghari, Shazia Atta Marri, Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho, Mir Aijaz Hussain Jakhrani and Dr Nafisa Shah.

Shazia Marri said the PPP had moved the resolution because it believed that Shiv Sena’s activities were aimed at sabotaging peace-building process between India and Pakistan and such actions could endanger peace in the region as well as the world.

She said that many international players had been busy in brokering peace between the two South Asian neighbours having nuclear capabilities, and urged the world to take notice of extremist activities in India.

She said that Pakistan had always faced pressures over the existence of extremist groups in the country and, therefore, it was now Islamabad’s responsibility to make the international community realise how Shiv Sena’s actions could endanger world peace.

Shiv Sena, which is a partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the coalition ruling Maharashtra state, had also attacked Sudheendra Kulkarni, who had organised the launching ceremony of a book by former foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri in Mumbai.

The hard-line group was also involved in hurling threats at well-known singer Ghulam Ali, which forced the cancellation of his concert in Mumbai.

Shiv Sena, which was founded by the late Bal Thackeray, has in the past threatened Pakistani sportsmen to deter them from taking part in sports competitions in India.

Thackeray often termed Indian Muslims “anti-nationals” and called for Hindu suicide squads to counter what he saw as a rise in ‘Islamic terrorism’.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2015

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