Bajwa: Extend CAB to include Ahmadiyyas

New Delhi, December 13

Rajya Sabha MP Partap Singh Bajwa today wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, seeking the inclusion of Ahmadiyyas in the scope of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019.

Bajwa argued that the Ahmadiyya community, a persecuted religious sect in Pakistan, is strongly connected to India and should be allowed to make India their home.

“It was in Qadian, Punjab, where the founder of the sect Mirza Ghulam Ahmad was born and began his teachings. Ahmadiyyas, while they consider themselves Muslims, were declared non-Muslims by Pakistan. In 1974, the Government of Pakistan under Zulfikar Ali Bhutto passed a constitutional amendment declaring these individuals as “non-Muslims”. Since then they have faced a litany of attacks in Pakistan,” said Bajwa, who had raised the issue during the CAB debate in Rajya Sabha too.

He said as recently as 2010, 94 Ahmadiyyas were massacred during Friday prayers with over 120 hurt in Lahore.

“In 2014, three women including an eight-month-old baby girl, were murdered for being from the Ahmadiyya sect. Chaudhary Zafarullah Khan, the first Asian President of the International Court of Justice was an Ahmadiyya, and through him, and his invitations the sect moved from their spiritual home of Qadian to Rabwah in Pakistan. But in 1953, began the reprisals against this community. From 1953 to date, Ahmadiyyas have been persecuted for their faith by Pakistan,” Bajwa wrote to PM.

He saidfirst Pakistani Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, an Ahmadiyya, had his tomb stone desecrated with the word “Muslim” written on it being covered to be hidden. — TNS