International

Pak. deplores Vajpayee remarks on Muslims

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD April 14. Pakistan today "deplored" the remarks made by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, against Muslims at a public meeting in Goa on April 12 and alleged that the remarks revealed his "anti-Muslim bias".

A spokesman of the Pakistan Foreign Office said the Pakistan Government was seriously concerned about the "bigoted and extremist message" contained in the speech of Mr. Vajpayee and urged the international community to take note of the "dangerous anti-Muslim trends" being promoted by no less a person than the Prime Minister himself. "It is passing strange that Mr. Vajpayee, himself a life long member of the Hindu reactionary and fundamentalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, should choose to call Muslims intolerant. He should perhaps also make public his views about extremist and terrorist Hindu organisations such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal etc, which are all part of the RSS family."

The spokesman alleged that Mr. Vajpayee's remarks were a "pathetic attempt" to divert attention from the recent massacres of hundreds of Muslims by "Hindu fanatics" in Gujarat. Mr. Vajpayee's "justification" of the killings of Muslims in Gujarat as a reaction to the Godhra incident was equally unfortunate and heartless.

"The open hostility towards Muslims evidenced in Mr. Vajpayee's remarks also shows that he is trying to retrieve his own and the BJP's waning popularity by inciting the Hindu majority in India against its vulnerable minorities," the statement said.

In a separate statement, the spokesman of the Hizb-ul Mujahideen, Salim Hashmi, said that the remarks should "open the eyes" of those who were never tired of talking of the virtues of secular India. He accused the Vajpayee Government of openly encouraging the majority community to turn against the minorities.

He urged the international community and human rights organisations to take note of the developments in India and appreciate the difficulties faced by the people of Kashmir in their "struggle for their right to self-determination".

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