Baldev Kumar

AMRITSAR: Feeling threatened and insecure in Pakistan, a member of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan ’s Tehreik-i-Insanf (PTI) party Baldev Kumar has sought asylum in India.

Baldev, who is married to a Khanna woman of Ludhiana district, has already shifted his wife Bhawana Sethi and two young children, including an 11-year-old thalassemia affected daughter, to India in the month of March.

TOI on late Monday evening traced Baldev Kumar, who lived in the guise of a Sikh in Pakistan, from Khanna.

Baldev Kumar, who had contested for Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) on PTI’s ticket from Swat, said that minorities are at a great risk in Pakistan , as they are being threatened by majority Muslims.

Notably, Baldev’s name had figured in the murder of PTI’s leader and MPA Swaran Singh, who was also a member of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) and had also been president of PSGPC for a short period in 2006.

The lawmaker was also an advisor to chief minister of Pak province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Parvez Khan Khattak. On April 22, Swaran Singh had gone to his native village Banur near Swat valley, where he was shot dead while out for an evening stroll.

It was alleged that Swaran Singh and Baldev Kumar were political rivals and the latter had paid around $10,000 to the shooters to kill him. The shooter was also later arrested by the police.

“Rumours are being spread by the Pakistan government against me, since I always raised voice against injustice,” claimed Baldev, adding that it was very hard for him to make a decision to seek asylum in India.

Sources informed that Baldev Kumar had arrived in India, along with a Sikh jatha, and had stayed here.

To buttress his claims of atrocities on minority communities by the majority Muslim community of Pakistan, he alleged that there have been several cases of atrocities on minorities, especially on Sikhs, but they keep quiet. “The same thing had happened in case of conversion of Jagjeet Kaur to Islam ,” he added.

