india

Updated: Sep 11, 2019 01:01 IST

A former legislator of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province said on Tuesday that minorities are not safe in the neighbouring country with Prime Minister Imran Khan trying to turn it into a terror state and that he will apply for asylum in India as he feels safe here.

Baldev Kumar (43), who was nominated as a member of provincial assembly (MPA) from the Barikot constituency and remained in the post for just 36 hours, is staying in a rented accommodation in Ludhiana district’s Khanna, his wife Bhawna’s hometown. The couple, who got married in 2007, have two children.

He came to India on three-month visa on August 13.

A sehajdhari Sikh, Baldev said the recent incidents of forced conversion of a Sikh girl to Islam and similar incidents against minorities have disturbed him.

“I am also getting information from Pakistan that I might be killed upon my return,” he added.

“Former Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu hugged Imran Khan but he does not have an idea about the Pakistan PM’s intentions,” he said.

“Hindus, Sikhs and Christians are ill-treated in Pakistan. During religious ceremonies, they disrupt power supply to gurdwaras. Hindu and Sikh leaders in Pakistan are being killed,” he said.

Without naming anyone, he said the Sikhs should know that the people who backstabbed and betrayed the Gurus can never be loyal to them.

“After they murdered party legislator Suran Singh in 2016, I was made a legislator. Before taking oath, the police arrested me and sent me to jail where I spent two years. I was acquitted by court in 2018. I was a councillor too,” he added.

His daughter Riya, 11, is suffering from thalassemia and they did not get quality health care for her in Pakistan. Health services in Pakistan are too costly and most people are not able to afford them, he said.

Baldev said India is progressing under Narendra Modi’s leadership.

Hailing scrapping of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, he said the Valley will progress with other parts of India after the move. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Pakistan army rains bullets on locals from helicopters, he claimed.