Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) is part of Bharat and Hindus and Muslims living there also belong to Bharat.
“Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) is part of Bharat. Wahan ke Muslims bhi hamare hain, wahan ke Hindus bhi hamare hain (Muslims residing there are our own, Hindus residing there are our own),” Amit Shah said.
He responded to queries concerning the Citizenship Amendment Act and the notification of rules for its implementation earlier this week by the Modi government.
He accused the opposition parties of misleading the Muslim community and said there is no provision in CAA to take away citizenship.
He said the law provides citizenship to those covered in its ambit and said that members of minority communities in Pakistan who were feeling persecuted were assured at the time of partition that they could later come to Bharat.
Shah said it was unfortunate that the country witnessed a religion-based partition in 1947.
“At the time of independence, there were 23 % Hindus in Pakistan. Today, there are 2.7 %. Where did they go? What happened to them?” he asked.
Noting that there had been religious conversions in the neighbouring country, he said some families whose women faced injustice and who suffered atrocities also took refuge in Bharat.
“Why should we not give them citizenship?” he asked.
The CAA rules, notified by the central government on March 11, entail conferring Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants – Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians – who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014.
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