india

Updated: Sep 10, 2019 14:52 IST

A Hindu politician from Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s PTI has sought political asylum in India, saying minorities, including Hindus and Sikhs, are regularly persecuted in his country.

The allegations of Baldev Kumar, a former MLA of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, come at a time Pakistan is expected to raise the issue of alleged human rights violations in Kashmir at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.

“Not only minorities, even Muslims are not safe there (Pakistan). We are surviving in Pakistan with a lot of difficulties. I request the Indian government to give me asylum here. I will not go back,” Baldev Kumar said, according to news agency Asian News International.

“The Indian government should announce a package so that the Hindu and Sikh families staying in Pakistan can come here. I want Modi sahab to do something for them. They are tortured there,” Kumar, who is in India with his family, said.

Baldev Kumar’s admission comes amid allegations that Pakistan treats people from minority communities harshly.

The 43-year-old Kumar was charged with a false murder case after a sitting MLA from his constituency was assassinated in 2016 but was acquitted in 2018, adding to a number of false cases that members of minority communities are framed in Pakistan.

Incidents of Hindu, Sikh and Christian girls forcibly converted to Islam and married to Muslim men are also reported regularly. A Sikh girl was allegedly abducted and converted to Islam before being married to a Muslim man in Pakistan’s Nankana Sahib last month.