Pakistani Hindu refugees get livid at Rohingya news

New Delhi, Aug 17: “If the Hindu refugees from Pakistan, who have been languishing across several cities in India, convert to Islam, will Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri provide them with houses?” asks Jay Ahuja, co-founder of non-profit ‘Nimittekam’ that has been devoted to rehabilitating Hindu and Sikh families from Pakistan in India.

 

 

 

“I am unable to believe this. So Hindus from Pakistan and Bangladesh live like dogs in Jodhpur, Jaipur, and Delhi, and this government provides houses to Rohingya Muslims. If we convert these Hindus to Islam, will you (Hardeep Singh Puri) provide them shelter too?” Ahuja told the media.

 

 

 

Earlier, RSS-affiliate Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had denounced the Centre’s decision to shift Rohingya Muslims to Economically Weaker Section (EWS) houses in Delhi and provide them with all amenities and police security.

Bhagchand Bheel, a Pakistani Hindu who migrated to India in 2014 from Karachi and now lives in Jodhpur awaiting Indian citizenship, told Firstpost how some 35,000 refugees such as him have been living in deplorable conditions. “I was shocked out of my senses when I came to know about this (Centre’s decision for Rohingya Muslims),” Bheel said.

“I can’t believe this. This is just like feeding a snake with milk while kicking about those who look up to India as their home and who celebrate the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. If we read the kalma, will the Centre give us Indian citizenship and houses to live in?” Bheel had migrated with his immediate family. Later his siblings too came to India. “Now, people from Pakistan taunt us: ‘you went there to find a home, but you live in tents and camps. We have no answer and the Indian government does this to us,” Bheel said. Another Hindu migrant from Pakistan, Banna Ram, told the media about how it has been difficult just to survive. “I don’t even get enough to eat and these Rohingya Muslims are getting houses and security and all facilities. Why? I feel cheated,” Ram said.

 

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"Most of the thousands of Pakistani Hindu migrants in Jaisalmer are fighting to barely survive," Ram said, adding that the only form of employment available is with mines and agricultural farms as laborers. “I broke my back since I was made to lift a stone heavier than I could. Since then I have been in bed. I just pass by one day at a time. Don’t I deserve something from the Indian government?” Ram lamented. Meanwhile, ‘Nimittekam’ struggles to get these refugees jobs when possible and run from pillar to post to get them Indian citizenship or, in the worst case, stop them from being deported. The non-profit has so far succeeded in getting Indian citizenship for 3,000 Pakistani Hindu and Sikh refugees, having facilitated the Indian migration of some 10,000 such refugees.