ISLAMABAD: The For­eign Office on Friday summoned the Indian Charge d’ Affaires and conveyed Pakistan government’s grave concern over the recent targeting of Muslims in India’s State of Assam, where a brutal eviction drive against the Muslim residents has been launched.

The Indian authorities came under fire on Twitter after a video circulating on social media showed the police opening fire on locals in Assam before a cameraperson pounced on one of the men who had fallen motionless on the ground as a result of the attack.

The video shows policemen firing blindly at unseen targets behind a mass of trees. As a man comes rushing towards them, they round him, attacking him with rods and sticks. As the man collapses to the ground — apparently due to a gunshot — and is lying motionless, a cameraperson runs towards him and repeatedly kicks him and jumps on him.

At least, two people were reported dead in the incident that took place in the Sipajhar area of Assam’s Darrang district, where most residents are Muslims of Bangla origin.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office in a statement condemned the extrajudicial killing of three men in Uri Sector along the Line of Control in India-held Kashmir. It said the killings were proof of India’s unabated state-terrorism against Kashmiris for decades.

“The so-called ‘anti-infiltration’ operation in Uri is the typical false flag operation by India that Pakistan has been warning the world about. This is an old Indian ploy to malign Pakistan,” it said.

The FO said rampant human rights violations by India in IIOJK (Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir) warranted an investigation by a United Nations Commission of Inquiry, as recommended by the OHCHR in its Kashmir reports of 2018 and 2019.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2021