Pakistan condemns Babri Masjid demolition on 29th anniversary

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday condemned the tragic demolition of historic Babri Masjid by the BJP-RSS zealots in India’s Ayodhya.

“Today marks another year since the tragic demolition of the historic Babri Masjid by BJP-RSS zealots,” the Foreign Office said in a statement on the 29th anniversary of the mosque’s demolition.

“This day is a stark reminder of the hysteria and hatred exhibited in India against Muslims and their heritage 29 years ago with state complicity. The cruelty and frenzy with which the centuries-old Mosque in Ayodhya was desecrated and demolished belies all tenets of international norms and constitutes grave violation of religious rights of the minorities.”

It said the heart-wrenching scenes of the razing of the Babri Mosque are still fresh not only in the minds of Muslims across the globe but also in the collective conscience of the international community. The defective Indian Supreme Court judgement of November 2019 and the subsequent shameless acquittal of criminals, mainly BJP leaders who had presided over the demolition in public glare, is testimony to India’s fast descent into majoritarianism and Hindutva extremism, it added.

“Appointing former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who led the bench writing the flawed verdict, as nominated member of Parliament within four months of his retirement, clearly indicated that the process was influenced by the ruling BJP-RSS dispensation for the advancement of its Hindutva agenda,” the statement read.

“Unfortunately, this remains the reality of today’s India where sacrilege of religious places and senseless attacks against minorities with state complicity have become a norm. The religious zealotry that was witnessed 29 years ago has only aggravated in ferocity and viciousness.”

“Anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat in 2002 and in Delhi in February 2020, the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) aimed at disenfranchising Muslims, violence against Muslims on the false pretexts of cow vigilantism, so-called ‘Love-Jihad’ and many such flimsy excuses, the recent brutal eviction of Muslims in Assam, the vandalization of mosques and Muslim properties in Tripura, the continued disruption of Friday prayers in Gurgaon are vivid pointers to growing religious intolerance and fanaticism in India.”

The Foreign Office said the harrowing impunity with which minorities especially Muslims are being persecuted, demonized and marginalized in India is deplorable.

The Foreign Office called upon the Government of India to take immediate steps to halt the illegal construction of a temple at the place of Babri Masjid, reconstruct the Babri Masjid at its original site and ensure the safety and protection of mosques and Islamic holy sites in India.