Share this story!            

Iindia refuses asylum to 66 Gohar Shahis from Pakistan

<>By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: The Indian government has refused to grant asylum to 66 Pakistanis from the Gohar Shahi sect, and launched the process to deport them.

Three years ago, the 66 members of the sect crossed over to India, and held a sit in along with their Indian associates near Indian parliament, burning their Pakistani passports. However, the protest landed them in jail.

They had applied for asylum, saying they were members of the Gohar Shahi sect, “which is closer to Hinduism than Islam”.

The Indian Home Ministry on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that the group’s appeal for political asylum could not be entertained, and the process for their deportation had begun.

The group – currently detained at Delhi’s Tihar jail and facing the charge of staying in India without valid documents – filed the appeal for asylum a year ago.

The government has now filed an application with a city court seeking permission to withdraw cases against the 66 Pakistanis under the Passport Act and the Registration of Foreigners Act, to make their immediate deportation possible.

Home Ministry officials said although it was a possibility that the 66 Pakistanis posed no threat to India, the government was not ready to take a risk after the Mumbai terror attacks last year.

The group’s appeal to involve the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) in the case was also rejected. “Summoning the UNHRC is out of our jurisdiction.

Home | National

Share this story!