Pakistan urges OIC to raise voice for Indian Muslims

Pakistan’s foreign minister on Sunday urged the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to bring together its foreign ministers to help defend Indian Muslims.

"We hope the OIC will convene its foreign ministers meeting in [the capital] Islamabad and jointly raise their voices for Indian Muslims," Qureshi told reporters in his hometown Multan, a city in the northeastern Punjab province.

On the India citizenship law, Qureshi said India appears to be divided into secularists and the “Hindutva Supremacy," as minorities and educated Hindus are also protesting the controversial law.

Citing the lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir that began on Aug. 5, he added: "The Indian government put the Kashmiri people in open prison for the last five months after an imposed curfew there, but all of India cannot be put under curfew, and the world saw the real face of India."

On Dec. 11, India’s parliament passed a controversial citizenship law offering citizenship rights to Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Parsi, and Jain communities migrating from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. The law, however, excluded Muslims, triggering mass protests across the country that have so far claimed 26 lives.

On Dec. 24, the OIC’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission strongly condemned the violence and loss of life during ongoing peaceful protests in the country against the citizenship law, urging the international community and the UN to pressure the Indian government to repeal the discriminatory clauses of the new law and abide by relevant international norms and standards in dealing with the ongoing peaceful protests and ensure the protection of all human rights.