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Needless self-righteousness over Sikhs
After an Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman protested against the Taliban’s attempt to impose jiziya and other restrictions on Sikhs living in Orakzai Agency, Pakistan is supposed to have given to India what is mentioned in the Pakistani press as a “shut up” call. The reported reply was: “The Indians were clearly told that these Sikhs are citizens of Pakistan and India need not worry about them. They were also informed that this is tantamount to interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs.”
If this is what Islamabad has done then we think it should have taken a different line. It should have said that the government had been greatly concerned about the Orakzai community of Sikhs and has given the ousted families good shelter in the gurudwara complex of Hassan Abdal for the time being. Four hundred additional Sikhs have also moved from Buner to Hassan Abdal after being forcibly evicted from there by the Taliban. This should have been the reply.
India made the demarche on Sikhs because of a formal call made by the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) of India, the highest religious body of Sikhs, in a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee regarding the development. The SGPC has sought permission from the prime minister to visit FATA in Pakistan to assess the condition of Sikhs living in the area. And SGPC has always had good relations with Pakistan.
The Taliban are not the enemies of Pakistan only. And they are no longer an “internal affair” of Pakistan. What they do threatens the world. The entire world is shaken by their potential to endanger international security. Religious minorities, when persecuted endlessly, tend to disturb bilateral relations. The persecution of Muslims in the Gujarat state of India has affected Indo-Pak relations; so has the persecution of the Shia community by extremists in Pakistan disturbed Pakistan’s equation with Iran. *
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
After an Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman protested against the Taliban’s attempt to impose jiziya and other restrictions on Sikhs living in Orakzai Agency, Pakistan is supposed to have given to India what is mentioned in the Pakistani press as a “shut up” call. The reported reply was: “The Indians were clearly told that these Sikhs are citizens of Pakistan and India need not worry about them. They were also informed that this is tantamount to interfering in Pakistan’s internal affairs.”
If this is what Islamabad has done then we think it should have taken a different line. It should have said that the government had been greatly concerned about the Orakzai community of Sikhs and has given the ousted families good shelter in the gurudwara complex of Hassan Abdal for the time being. Four hundred additional Sikhs have also moved from Buner to Hassan Abdal after being forcibly evicted from there by the Taliban. This should have been the reply.
India made the demarche on Sikhs because of a formal call made by the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) of India, the highest religious body of Sikhs, in a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee regarding the development. The SGPC has sought permission from the prime minister to visit FATA in Pakistan to assess the condition of Sikhs living in the area. And SGPC has always had good relations with Pakistan.
The Taliban are not the enemies of Pakistan only. And they are no longer an “internal affair” of Pakistan. What they do threatens the world. The entire world is shaken by their potential to endanger international security. Religious minorities, when persecuted endlessly, tend to disturb bilateral relations. The persecution of Muslims in the Gujarat state of India has affected Indo-Pak relations; so has the persecution of the Shia community by extremists in Pakistan disturbed Pakistan’s equation with Iran. *
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan