Look nowhere else for justification of CAA. Pakistan is butchering its minorities as we speak

On Friday, disturbing images and videos emerged from Nankana Sahib, Pakistan, which is the birthplace of Guru Nanak Dev. A Muslim mob laid siege of the Gurudwara Janam Asthan and also indulged in vandalism and stone pelting at the holiest of Sikh shrines. A couple of days later, a 25 year old Sikh man, identified as Ravinder Singh, has been murdered in Peshawar, Pakistan.

The Sikh youth’s dead body was found in the Chamkani Police Station area in Peshawar. He lived in Malaysia, and had travelled to Pakistan for his wedding and was in Peshawar for shopping. The attack on Nankana Sahib followed by the cold blooded murder of the Sikh youth shows how the Islamist forces in Pakistan are going on a rampage with sheer impunity. In fact, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan seems to have institutionalised the persecution of its minorities.

The two incidents are bound to be seen as vindication of the CAA which was recently passed by India’s Parliament to provide expedited citizenship to those who fled persecution from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan to India. This also busts Pakistani propaganda around the Kartarpur corridor. The deadly attack on Sikh pilgrims in Nankana Sahib exposes the sham of Imran Khan’s bonhomie towards the Sikhs. People like Sidhu were singing paeans for Imran Khan during Kartarpur Corridor inauguration. However, the dastardly attack on the Sikh shrine followed by the cold blooded murder of a Sikh youth exposed how the Islamic Republic is systematically tormenting and persecuting its minorities.

In fact, the issue of persecution of Sikh community in Pakistan is nothing new. Even last year, a 19 year old Sikh girl was forcibly converted to Islam and married to a Muslim man in Pakistan. The victim, Jagjit Kaur was renamed as ‘Ayesha’ after conversion to Islam. This incident took place in Nankana Sahib, Punjab and the father of the victim is a Sikh Granthi in a local Gurudwara.

Apart from providing a strong justification for the CAA, Pakistan’s state sponsored terrorism against its minorities also makes a case for protecting the minorities that are presently in Pakistan. The CAA in its current form provides a cut off date of 2014. The object is to expedite the citizenship process for those who escaped religious persecution in the three neighbouring Islamic States.

However, communal violence and persecution has clearly not abated. With Imran Khan’s bigoted, anti Hindu narrative, the violence and persecution against religious minorities is only to aggravate in the near future. Therefore, the CAA falls just short of its object of providing protection to the persecuted minorities in Pakistan and the other two countries. It also seems inequitable that those who are still in Pakistan don’t really have an option of escaping persecution in the Islamic Republic and seeking Indian citizenship through the expedited process. The CAA in its present form therefore does not redress the sufferings of those religious minorities who are still facing the brunt of violent Islamism in the terrorist country.

As such, the Modi government must now contemplate changing the cut off date and creating a future cut off date so that the persecuted minorities in Pakistan and also the other two Islamic countries get a fair opportunity to flee persecution and avail the benefit of the CAA. The object of the CAA is a good, humanitarian purpose. However, the purpose gets defeated to some extent with a 2014 cut off date. Thus, by continuing the policy of tormenting its religious minorities, unabashed terror country, Pakistan has made a strong case for extending the CAA cut off date.