Incident shows atrocities on minorities in Pakistan: BJP

New Delhi: Building a case for the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday said the Nankana Sahib incident in Pakistan shows how minorities in the neighbouring country are being persecuted and claimed that the incident was just a “trailer” of what has been happening with the minorities and their religious places in the neighbouring country since the Partition.

Asking those protesting against the CAA,  including the Congress, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the Kerala assembly, the BJP said it is time that these people should realise the difference between granting citizenship to a religiously persecuted person and an illegal immigrant.

The BJP said attack on the holiest shrine of Sikhs — Nankana Sahib — is equivalent to someone attacking on Kaaba Jerusalem.

“It was a dastardly and reprehensible incident against the holiest places of the Sikhs. There have been consistent acts of violence against minorities and their religious places in Pakistan. Thousands of minorities girls have been abducted and forcefully converted to Islam and married off in Pakistan...we know what happened with Asia Bibi...if someone tries to raise voice against atrocities, the notorious blasphemy law is misused against them....the incident justifies the necessity of CAA and its immediate implementation,” said BJP national spokesperson and MP, Meenakshi Lekhi.

Asking Pakistan government to protect the rights and dignity of its minorities, the BJP said attack on the holiest shrine of Sikhs — Nankana Sahib — is equivalent to someone attacking on Kaaba Jerusalem while reminding the neighbouring country that Pakistani Sikhs are the off-springs of that soil and continue to have faith and duty towards that soil and thus, did not migrate and chose to remain there.

Ms Lekhi also said that this incident should open the eyes of Congress leaders such as Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Navjot Singh Sidhu, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, the leftists and the “urban Naxals” who have been opposing the CAA.

Taking on those opposing the CAA, Union minister Hardeep Puri said “Fringe ‘secularists’ opposing CAA in India should stop living in denial and listen to slogans being raised in Sri Nankana Sahib Ji...Do they need more proof...Vandalism, stone-pelting and acts of desecration at the holiest of holy Sri Nankana Sahib Gurudwara yesterday should be an eye-opener for those who refuse to recognise religious persecution of minorities in Pakistan and the rationale behind CAA.”

Asking those opposing the CAA to differentiate between persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries seeking citizenship in India and illegal migrants, BJP’s national secretary Tarun Chugh said Nankana Sahib incident was just a trailer of what is happening with minorities in Pakistan.

“Where is Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi who had cried once, why there is no reaction from Mamata Banerjee(West Bengal CM), Priyanka Gandhi(Congress leader)...these people cannot differentiate between refugees, who have to flee due to Taliban and jehadi elements in neighbouring counties and illegal immigrants,” said Mr Chugh who asked Pakistan government to answer where the “95 per cent” of the minorities in the country after Partition, have vanished.