A concerned New Delhi has communicated its concerns to Islamabad over reports of Sikhs being forced by the Taliban to leave their homes in Pakistan’s northwest region and being asked to pay special taxes.
The Ministry of External Affairs is learnt to have summoned a diplomat of the Pak High Commission to register its “unhappiness.” The Indian mission in Islamabad conveyed similar views to the Pak Foreign Office.
Said MEA spokesperson Vishnu Prakash: “On seeing reports about Sikh families in Pakistan being driven out of their homes and being subjected to Jaziya (“protection tax” on non-Muslims under Shariah), the Government of India has taken up the question of treatment of minorities with the government of Pakistan.”
Geo TV said Taliban militants took over shops and homes of 35 Sikh families and arrested community leaders in the Ferozkhel in FATA’s Lower Orakzai Agency. They ruled that the community should pay Rs 15 million as annual protection money. And when residents said they couldn’t pay, the Taliban auctioned their houses, forcing many to migrate
----------------
Targeted by Taliban, Sikhs flee Pak region; India concerned
Targeted by the Taliban, 35 Sikh families that have been living for decades in Pakistan's Orakzai Agency have begun migrating from the area after being levied a jaziya or protection tax, an issue New Delhi has now taken up with Islamabad.
India said it had taken up with Pakistan the treatment of minorities in the country.
"The Government of India has taken up the question of treatment of minorities in Pakistan with the government of Pakistan," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said in New Delhi.
Quoting sources, Pakistani channel Geo TV said Taliban militants had taken over the shops and homes of the 35 Sikh families and arrested community leaders Klank Singh and Sewa Singh in the Ferozkhel area of Lower Orakzai Agency.
Following this, a local jirga ruled that the Sikh community should annually pay Rs.15 million ($187,000) as protection money. Earlier reports had said the Taliban had demanded Rs.50 million but that this had been reduced.
When the Sikh community expressed their inability to pay, the Taliban then auctioned their houses and other belongings, forcing them to migrate from the area.
There are reports the militants had demolished the houses 11 houses of the Sikh community after they failed to pay the jaziya tax.
The Orakzai Agency is situated in the virtually ungovernable Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border where the writ of the Taliban and Al Qaeda largely runs.
The militants in the area are led by Hakeemullah Mehsud, the deputy of Tehrik-e-Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, one of the principal suspects in the Dec 27, 2007 assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto in a gun and bomb attack in the garrison town of Rawalpindi.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment