FM Qureshi condemns Bengaluru incident, says Muslims no more safe in India

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Thursday condemned the unfortunate incident in Bengaluru, saying that Muslim minorities are no more safe in India.

"Pakistan is highlighting the issue of Islamophobia at every international forum," the minister in a statement said, adding that the blasphemy incident in India has hurt the sentiments of Muslims.

The minister lambasted the Indian state for arresting Muslims, saying that their sentiments were hurt yet police resorted to arrest and wound them. 

"Pakistan has the right to raise this issue," Qureshi stated, adding that the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other international organisations should take notice of the incident.

"The secular state [of India] has been buried by the Modi-led government and today a new Hindu state is being born in India," the minister censured, stressing that it was not India's internal issue but concerned human rights.

Qureshi said that Pakistan on Wednesday had strongly condemned the incident and sent a message to the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. 

"I have raised this issue in front of the newly elected President of the General Assembly," the federal minister said, adding that Prime Minister Imran Khan had also voiced his concerns regarding the rising trend of Islamophobia during his last year's speech at the UN General Assembly.

Anti-Islam Facebook post sparks clashes in India's Bengaluru

Yesterday, at least three people were killed during clashes with police in the Indian city of Bengaluru overnight over an anti-Islam Facebook post that sparked protests in which a police station was attacked, and a politician's house and vehicles were torched.

Read more: 3 killed in India's Bengaluru as anti-Islam Facebook post sparks clashes

Unable to quell protesters using batons and tear gas, besieged officers had opened fire as they risked being overpowered during the violent unrest in a Muslim-dominated neighborhood, the southern city's police chief told Reuters on Wednesday.

"Despite elders of the community trying to pacify the crowd, the mob burnt vehicles on the road, they attacked the police station," Police Commissioner Kamal Pant had said.

"The police had no escape and they had to resort to firing and three people died," Pant had said, adding that 110 people had been arrested for alleged vandalism and attacking the police.

A police official had said an emergency law prohibiting gatherings had been imposed in Bengaluru, a city of 12 million people best known as India's Silicon Valley.

Pant had said the anti-Islam post has been deleted and the person who published it is under custody. Facebook did not immediately comment on the issue.