KARACHI: The Indian Home Minister, Mr G.L. Nanda, has caused disappointment in informed quarters in Karachi by impliedly rejecting Pakistan’s request to have a joint Indo-Pakistan machinery to go into the question of the nationality of Indian Muslims being evicted by the Indian Government on the plea that they were Pakistani “infiltrators”.

In a letter to Pakistan’s Home Minister, Khan Habibullah Khan, Mr Nanda has reiterated that these Muslims “are” evicted for “the sole reason” that “they are foreigners who have entered the country without permission”.

“You are aware of our views in the matter,” he has stressed in his letter which he has sent in reply to a communication dated June 24.

Informed quarters in Karachi were astonished over Mr Nanda’s expression of ignorance regarding the number of Muslims who have been forced to seek refuge in Pakistan. East Pakistan, according to these circles, has received over half a million refugees during the past two years. The latest series of riots in India culminated in the ruthless massacres of Jamshedpur and Rourkela. Over 10,000 Muslims were butchered.

These events, together with the riots which took place just about the same time in West Bengal, have continued to create a situation of extreme insecurity and panic for the Muslims.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd , 2014