Modi's ethnic cleansing of Muslims should ring alarm bells across world: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan  said that the illegal annexation of occupied Kashmir was part of a ‘wider’ strategy of the Indian government ‘to target Muslims.’ 

In a Twitter post on Saturday, PM Imran said, “Reports in Indian and international media on Modi Govt’s ethnic cleansing of Muslims should send alarm bells ringing across the world that the illegal annexation of Kashmir is part of a wider policy to target Muslims.”

Along with his tweet, the prime minister shared a recent report from the Indian state of Assam where almost two million people were stripped of their citizenship on Saturday, fearing mass deportations of Muslims from the area.

Reports in Indian and international media on Modi Govt's ethnic cleansing of Muslims should send alarm bells ringing across the world that the illegal annexation of Kashmir is part of a wider policy to target Muslims.https://t.co/QmjTDyaGVV

— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 31, 2019

Earlier today, AFP reported that almost two million people in northeast India were left facing statelessness after the state of Assam published a citizenship list aimed at weeding out “foreign infiltrators”, in a process the central government wants to replicate nationwide.

A total of 31.1 million people were included in a final National Register of Citizens (NRC), but 1.9 million were deemed ineligible, according to a statement from the Assam government. Most of those excluded were expected to be Muslim.

Members of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi´s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party-run Assam — and critics say the NRC process reflects the BJP´s goal to serve only its co-religionists.