KARACHI: Special assistant to Sindh chief minister on minorities Dr Khatumal Jeewan on Thursday condemned the Indian-sponsored international propaganda over the plight of religious minorities, Hindus in particular, in Pakistan, which he said, was an attempt to divert world’s attention from the Indian atrocities in the held Kashmir.

Speaking to reporters, Dr Jeewan said he had been elected to the national and provincial legislatures and senate for eight times since 1988, which, he said, was itself a befitting rebuttal to the claim the Indian authorities were making against Pakistan. He said the Indian government’s hands were stained with the blood of Dalits, Muslims and Kashmiris.

“World knows that horrific human rights violations have been going on in India for decades. The international community should force India and the Modi government to stop persecuting minority communities,” he said.

Dr Jeewan said merely granting admission to two Hindu girls from Pakistan in medical colleges, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj wanted to dupe the world; while thousands of Hindu boys and girls were already studying in Pakistani medical, engineering and business universities and faced no discrimination.

He said certain recent protests outside the UN Human Rights Council building against alleged atrocities on minorities in Pakistan were nothing but eyewash as “we feel safer in Pakistan than in India or elsewhere”.

He praised chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who had granted three seats to the minorities in the Sindh cabinet and nominated 18 chairmen and vice chairmen on district, municipal and town committees across Sindh. “Muslim and non-Muslim citizens of Pakistan are united in the nation’s struggle for a peaceful, prosperous and united Pakistan.”

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2016