New Delhi, February 9
Soon after the Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke on the Hijab controversy, the Indian Charge d’ Affairs in Islamabad was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and conveyed its Government’s ‘grave concern and condemnation’ on the banning of Muslim girl students from wearing hijab in Karnataka.
The Charged’ Affairs was urged to convey to the Indian Government, Pakistan’s extreme concern over the anti-hijab campaign, which is “part of its agenda aimed at dehumanising and demonising Muslim women,” said a Pakistan Foreign Ministry press release.
Pakistan also called upon the international community, including the UN and OIC, especially their human rights machinery, to take cognisance of the “worrying level of Islamophobia in India and prevail upon Indian authorities to prevent systematic human rights violations against minorities in the country”.