KARACHI: An Indian Muslim and his son who fled their home country citing religious persecution and arrived in Pakistan earlier this month have appealed to the government not to deport them and allow them to stay under “any restrictions.”
Journalist Mohammad Hasnain, 65, and his son Ishaq Amir, 31, a technician at an Indian company, hail from Jamshedpur, an industrial city located in the state of Jharkhand bordering West Bengal. Their journey to Pakistan involved flying from New Delhi to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on September 5, where they got visas for Afghanistan and then flew onwards to Kabul and subsequently to Kandahar. Finally, they paid a driver a little over $200 dollars to drive them across the border to Chaman in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, where they arrived on Sept. 14.
The two are now living at a shelter in Karachi, and say they left their country out of “helplessness” over repeated attacks by Hindu extremists.
Rights groups allege mistreatment of Muslims, some 14 percent of India’s 1.3 billion people, under Narendra Modi, who became prime minister in 2014. In reports on human rights and religious freedom, the US State Department has also raised concerns over treatment of Muslims, Hindu Dalits, Christians and other religious minorities in India while also listing a crackdown on journalists.
Activists point to a 2019 citizenship law described as “fundamentally discriminatory” by the United Nations human rights office for excluding Muslim migrants, an anti-conversion legislation challenging the constitutionally protected right to freedom of belief, and the 2019 revoking of Muslim-majority Kashmir’s special status. There has also been demolition of Muslim properties in the name of removing illegal construction and a ban on wearing the hijab in classrooms in Karnataka when Modi’s BJP party was in power in that state. Attacks by cow vigilantes are also on the rise.
“You can consider that India is like a prison for Muslims, you can eat, drink, and dress up but you don’t have freedom of any kind, you are considered a second-class citizen,” Hasnain told Arab News from the Karachi shelter where he is staying. “If some injustice happens to you, there is no one to listen to you, the police won’t listen, the courts won’t listen.”
Hasnain, who was the editor of an Indian weekly publication ‘The Media Profile,’ was also targeted for his journalism.
“It’s common for journalists to provide commentary on government policies, every journalist does it,” he said, holding up a copy of the publication he worked for. “Every journalist talks about the poor conditions in an area. I also used to write about the injustices faced by Muslims due to their religion. This used to rile them [Indian government] up.”
Amir, the son, said he had been beaten up by right-wing Hindus three times, in 2018, 2019 and 2020. In 2021, he said both father and son were beaten up.
“I filed formal complaints in the company, but there was no reaction, no action taken,” Amir said of the attacks that took place at his workplace.
“Instead, the reaction always seemed to be directed at me. I endured beatings, heard abusive slogans, and was even forced to chant derogatory slogans against Pakistan and Islam. If we answer them, we will get thrashed and if we don’t, then we have to live with our heads down.”
Once in Pakistan, the father and son met police officials who advised them to seek refuge at a shelter run by the Edhi Foundation, Pakistan’s largest charity organization. They are now living there under the supervision of two policemen, and are not allowed to leave the premises.
Asked about the pair’s legal status, deputy inspector general (DIG) of police Asad Raza directed Arab News to speak to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). An FIA spokesperson said the agency had nothing to do with the Indian nationals since they were being handled by police officials. The Indian High Commission did not respond to emails seeking comment about the case.
Asked what they would do if the Pakistani government refused to grant them asylum, Hasnain said the pair would be out of options.
“We just want to be given refuge, we are not demanding anything else,” he said. “You [Pakistan government] can impose any restrictions you want, give us any punishment you desire, do whatever you want, we have no complaints. All we seek is permission to live in this country … I can only make one request: where 250 million people are living, please spare a place for two more.”
Hasnain denied he and his son were seeking refuge in Pakistan at the behest of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency to tarnish India’s reputation or had arrived in Pakistan on an espionage mission.
“I refute both claims,” Hasnain said. “Neither the Indians have sent us here nor the Pakistanis brought us under their patronage.”
Asked why he opted for Pakistan and not Bangladesh, which is closer to his hometown and where he would have received a visa more easily, the journalist pointed to New Delhi’s influence over the administration in Dhaka.
“It would have been like falling out of the frying pan and into the fire,” he said. “If the Indian government were to someday ask for our return, the Bangladeshis would hand us over within a second.”
Amir, whose father separated from his mother several years ago, didn’t even tell his mother before fleeing India.
“Now that we have come here, all that we hope for is mercy,” he said. “We seek refuge.”
