Baldev Kumar, a former legislator from Pakistani PM Imran Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf birthday party, tells DW that Pakistan is an "unsafe nation" and that the govt mistreats minorities there.
Baldev Kumar (main picture), a former legislator from Pakistani top Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) birthday party, has sought asylum in India for himself and his family unit. Kumar, a former member of the provincial meeting from the minority-reserved Barikot seat of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, is at present in Khanna, in the Indian state of Punjab, where his in-laws live.
The 43-year-ancient politician is in India on a three-month visa for medical medicine of his 12-year-historic daughter who's a Thalassemia main patient.
study extra: Kartarpur corridor: Can India and Pakistan convey down their 'Berlin Wall'?
Kumar alleges that Pakistan is an "dangerous nation" and that Imran Khan-led government mistreats minorities there. In a DW interview, Kumar stated his issues for Pakistan's Sikh group, specifically those living in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, together with the semi-self reliant tribal place that shares a border with Afghanistan.
DW: have you ever taken a huge possibility by means of seeking asylum in India? What triggered you to take this resolution?
Baldev Kumar: there are many Sikhs in Pakistan who are involved about their safeguard and their families. I took a chance, however a calculated one, and that is why I planned my break out from Pakistan. My brothers had been worried if i would make the experience correctly, and that I may get killed.
I took the gamble and it paid off. i'm hoping this experience is worthwhile and will spotlight the plight of other Sikh households.
on account that Imran Khan grew to become Pakistan's leading minister, things have turned worse. He is a mere puppet following guidelines. He has didn't carry. safety has turn into an enormous subject for many minority communities there, and abductions and forced conversions have handiest heightened the climate of fear.
Kumar: 'considering Imran Khan grew to be Pakistan's major minister, things have became bad'
Did you leave Pakistan because you were accused of involvement in a murder case?
That isn't authentic. In 2016, Suran Singh, the then particular adviser to chief minister and a member of the provincial meeting, was assassinated. I wrongly confronted charges of involvement during this homicide case and became subsequently acquitted in 2018.
I don't know what his family members consider of me, however I actually have been cleared by using the court docket. in fact, the government owes me remuneration for two years. The speaker's office is withholding my arrears devoid of rationale.
study extra: Why are Pakistani Shiites 'disappearing'?
What have you witnessed that substantiates your fears that Sikhs and different minorities are living in concern in Pakistan?
The Sikh population in Pakistan is declining. The number of Sikhs in the country has come down significantly, from about 50,000 two decades in the past to around 8,000 now.
a great deal of issues occurring within the nation, like forced conversions, don't get the publicity they deserve. only recently, on September three, a Sikh lady become allegedly kidnapped and converted to Islam in Pakistan's Sindh province. She was the daughter of a "granthi" (priest). This become the 2d incident of compelled conversion within a week. Such incidents are happening in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces. I fear for my life there and for this reason I've left Pakistan.
What do you consider of the Kartarpur hall, which is supposed to permit Sikh pilgrims from India to visit Kartarpur Sahib shrine in Pakistan's Punjab province?
it is a good suggestion and that i hope it occurs. but I have a feeling that politics could damage this respectable idea. The venture will link Dera Baba Nanak in Indian Punjab's Gurdaspur district to Kartarpur in Pakistan's Narowal district.
it will be outstanding if both sides may attain a deal on the hall by the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak [the founder of the Sikh religion]. however we have to wait and see.
what is your subsequent path of action?
I humbly request Indian best Minister Narendra Modi and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to chill out visa conditions so that people who are struggling in Pakistan can come to India and live right here. it is extremely being concerned what is happening there and i are looking to highlight the issues being faced by using the individuals.
I essentially hope I might be allowed to live in India. There isn't any approach i can return to Pakistan. I comfortably can not and do not are looking to. i need asylum in India.
Baldev Kumar is a former legislator from Pakistan's Tehreek-e-Insaf birthday party who represented the Barikot constituency in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial meeting.
The interview became carried out via Murali Krishnan.
In Pakistan, it is unlawful to drink, eat and even smoke in public throughout Ramadan. You may also be sent to prison, heavily fined, or may additionally even be overwhelmed by means of vigilantes. past this month, the country's lawmakers delivered stricter penalties that may see people jailed for up to a few months for a violation.
Bakhtawar Bhutto, the daughter of former prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, become brief to condemn the newest change, dubbing the legislation "ridiculous." "no longer everyone in Pakistan should be fasting - children in school, the aged, americans with medical concerns - should still we arrest them for ingesting water?" tweeted Bhutto. "individuals are going to die from warmth stroke and dehydration with this ridiculous legislation."
"an individual who, based on the tenets of Islam, is under an obligation to fast shall no longer eat, drink or smoke in a public region all the way through fasting hours within the month of Ramadan," says the Ehtiram-e-Ramadan (recognize for Ramadan) legislations, which was delivered with the aid of the armed forces dictator Zia-ul-Haq in 1981.
Theologically, Ramadan is about austerity. It teaches Muslims to be pious, to evade evil, to fast right through the day, and to donate funds to the negative. "Zakat" (which potential alms-giving in Arabic) is an Islamic subculture in which Muslims give a part of their income to these in want, peculiarly during this holy month.
The Islamic month of Ramadan coincides with sweltering temperatures in most Muslim-majority international locations. In 2015, a brutal heat wave killed over 1,250 people in Pakistan - many of them died of dehydration while fasting. Even then, the govt did not relax the 36-12 months-historic law. Some clerics did, although, say it became permissible to damage the Ramadan fast for fitness factors.
very nearly all restaurants are closed from fajr (crack of dawn) unless maghreb (nightfall), and shopkeepers handiest promote takeaway meals items. if you are hungry or thirsty the most effective area for you is home. At offices - both public and private - you don't seem to be allowed to eat.
With the warfare in Afghanistan and increase of Islamist businesses such because the Taliban in the place, things have taken a flip for the more severe during the past few years. non secular extremism and intolerance are on the upward push in the South Asian Islamic nation. on the same time, Ramadan is additionally an opportunity for extremist and militant outfits to rake in cash via charity donations.
Incidents of non secular vigilantism have spiked in the past few years, with fanatic mobs trying to enforce their own version of Shariah. a number of individuals had been lynched on unproven accusations of blasphemy. Observers say the existence of quite a few Islamic legal guidelines has emboldened radicals to take matters into their personal arms and dole out "justice" to what they deem un-Islamic. (shs)
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