• FO berates India for its silence on such incidents and protecting blasphemers.
• Demands India take immediate action against  BJP members habitually involved in attacking Islam.
• Calls on int’l community to take cognisance of increasing Islamophobia in India.

Pakistan has strongly condemned the blasphemous remarks against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) by another official of India’s ruling BJP. 

This is the second time in the last three months that a BJP leader has made derogatory remarks against the holy prophet (PBUH) as the first time was when Nupur Sharma committed blasphemy in June.

“Pakistan condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the highly provocative and sacrilegious remarks made against the Holy Prophet [Muhammad] (PBUH), by Raja Singh, a BJP official and a member of the state legislative assembly of the Indian state of Telangana,” a statement issued by the Foreign Office read.

It stated that these highly derogatory remarks have gravely hurt the feelings of the people of Pakistan and billions of Muslims around the world, including India and the token and perfunctory disciplinary action taken by the BJP against the said official cannot assuage the pain and anguish caused to the Muslims.

The FO berated the Indian authorities for what it called “highly reprehensible” that Singh was released on bail within hours of arrest and was welcomed by BJP zealots.

“Despite global outrage and denunciation of an earlier similar and equally pernicious act, the current incident once again highlights the present Indian regime’s obsessively spiteful demeanour towards the Muslims and the worrying trajectory of Islamophobia in India. The fact is that India is nothing more than an undeclared ‘Hindu Rashtra’ where Muslims are routinely denigrated, dispossessed and marginalised and their religious beliefs are trampled under majoritarian hegemonism.”

The statement further condemned the BJP’s top leadership saying that its deafening silence on the abhorrent incident is a manifest reflection of their approval and full support to the radical Hindu zealots within and beyond the party.

Referring to Sharma, the FO stated that the extension of full state protection to the former BJP spokesperson, despite her highly condemnable remarks against the dignity of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), is reflective of the impunity being enjoyed by those attacking Islam in India.

It demanded the Indian government on Pakistan’s behalf to take immediate and decisive action against the BJP members who are habitually involved in attacking Islam and targeting the dignity of our beloved prophet (PBUH).

It said that Pakistan also calls on the international community to take urgent cognisance of the aggravating situation of Islamophobia in India and hold the current BJP government to account for its overt espousal of an anti-Muslim and anti-Islam agenda.