Thousands of Pakistanis live in BJP-ruled states, nation’s security at risk, claims ‘Saamana’
In an editorial, the Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana questioned the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the intelligence department over Pakistani citizens staying in India illegally for years.
In an editorial in its mouthpiece, Saamana, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said the Centre has started the mission to oust them from the country only recently. (File photo)
The Shiv Sena (UBT) Monday took a swipe at the Centre over the presence of “thousands” of Pakistanis in the country, claiming the number of Bangladeshi and Pakistani citizens increased in the country during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s regime.
In an editorial in its mouthpiece, Saamana, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party said the Centre has started the mission to oust them from the country only recently. “After the Pahalgam terror strike, the Central government is in a state of daze. It was busy playing politics… and now, when the terror attack has happened, it has woken up from its slumber,” said the editorial.
“But in states which the BJP has ruled, thousands of Pakistanis have been found. It clearly means that for years they remained in deep slumber,” the editorial said.
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Saamana claimed there were more than 5,000 Pakistani citizens in Maharashtra, 30,000 in Rajasthan, 5,000 in Delhi, 2000 in Chhattisgarh, and 228 in Madhya Pradesh. “Of the 5,023 Pakistanis living in Maharashtra, 2,458 were found in Nagpur. Nagpur is the home town of Maharashtra’s Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and has the RSS headquarters. If the police do not have any information about 30 Pakistanis in Nagpur, then not only Maharashtra’s but the country’s security is at risk,” it said.
The paper said the key question is how people from an enemy nation like Pakistan can stay illegally in every nook and corner of India. “Where do they come from? And again, how come the government remembered these people only after the Pahalgam attack? Does the government have an answer?” it asked.
Saamana alleged that small-time traders like fruit and vegetable vendors, cloth merchants, and students who are Muslims are being harassed in the states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party by accusing them of being Pakistanis. “In the BJP-ruled states, a mission to harass Muslims has been started… And that is why the key issue of Pakistani infiltrators has remained, and something else has started,” the paper said.
The paper said the deadline to oust Pakistani citizens from the country set by Union Home Minister Amit Shah ended on Sunday. “Even after the deadline has ended, thousands of Pakistanis continue to live in India…The move is appropriate. However, why did the government wait for Pahalgam to happen? The common people are asking this question, and there is nothing wrong with it… After the deadline has ended, it is still not being revealed as to how many Pakistanis have been sent back and how many are still in the country,” the paper said.
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The editorial questioned the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the intelligence department over Pakistani citizens staying in India illegally for years.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
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