Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan told the United Nations General Assembly on September 25 that India’s Hindu nationalist government is a state sponsor of hatred and prejudice against Muslims.
Speaking in a prerecorded speech to the UN gathering, which is being held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic, Khan told world leaders that Islamophobia rules India and threatens nearly 200 million Muslims who live there.
“They believe that India is exclusive to Hindus and others are not equal citizens,” Khan said.
The Pakistani leader also criticized the Indian government’s attempts to consolidate its control over the Muslim-majority Kashmir region.
Khan has frequently criticized the August 2019 decision by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to strip Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, scrap its separate constitution, and remove inherited protections on land and jobs.
India’s action and a security clampdown that followed has sparked protests.
UN-appointed independent experts have called on India to take urgent action.
Residents of the heavily militarized Indian-controlled region of Kashmir say security forces have arrested thousands of young men.
They claim that security forces have raided people's homes, inflicted residents with beatings and electric shocks, and threatened to take away and marry their female relatives.
Based on reporting by AP and Reuters