Around 200 Pakistani Hindus crossed the Attari Wagah border to India on Monday. Officials said that there have been indications among them that they do not want to go back to Pakistan. Pakistani Hindu visitors have come to India on visas but some of them claimed that they do not feel safe in Pakistan and they are hoping to get Indian citizenship after the CAA comes into force.
Manjinder Singh, leader of the Akali Dal and chairman of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, was present at the border to rescue four families who claimed to have fled Pakistan due to religious persecution. The border officials claimed that there was a huge increase in the number of Hindus coming from Pakistan compared to last month.
The amended citizenship law provides for citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan coming to India before 31 December 2014. Most of the travelers who crossed the border to India were from Sindh and Karachi regions. Some of them had luggage and were saying that they would find shelter in India.
On the condition of concealing identity, a Pakistani Hindu said that Hindus living in Pakistan and Afghanistan are hoping to get Indian citizenship after the new citizenship law comes into force. He said that most of them are coming to Rajasthan to meet their relatives. One woman said, We do not feel safe in Pakistan.
Our girls are always afraid that some fundamentalist will kidnap them and the police will keep on watching silent spectators. Our girls cannot even walk freely in the northwest region of Pakistan.
Two other women, without disclosing their names, told the media that kidnapping of Hindu girls in Pakistan has become a daily thing and no family dared to complain to the police against the fundamentalists. Meanwhile, Akali leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa said that he had gone to the border to rescue four families who had fled from Pakistan.
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