India has rejected comments by Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari calling against the demolition of a roughly 1,000-year-old Muslim religious structure in India, describing his remarks as ‘unjustified’ and a ‘malicious, calculated political attack.’ New Delhi said Islamabad had no standing to comment on India’s internal affairs.
India’s reaction came after a post Zardari shared on X, in which he expressed concern over threats to demolish the historic Masjid-e-Ganj-e-Shahida in Varanasi, in India’s Uttar Pradesh, and various Muslim religious structures across India. The Pakistani president’s official X handle said: ‘The vandalism of historic Muslim religious structures in India and the threats made against them are alarming.’ He claimed these structures included the thousand-year-old Masjid-e-Ganj-e-Shahida in Varanasi. The Pakistani president urged India to halt such actions immediately, warning that such steps could push India towards isolation and long-term instability. He also called for protecting the rights of minorities and preserving shared cultural heritage.
Responding to Zardari’s remarks, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said the comments were baseless and that India clearly rejected them. The ministry’s spokesman, Randhir Jaiswal, said the Pakistani president had no position or right to comment on India’s internal affairs. ‘In any case, he has no standing or right to comment on India’s internal matters,’ he said.
Jaiswal added that because Pakistan’s own record on human rights was very poor, such comments seemed all the more unjustified. ‘Pakistan’s own human-rights situation is a subject of discussion at the international level as well. Pakistan’s history of systematically targeting and persecuting various religious minorities over a long period is well known,’ he said.
India’s statement also said that, over the past few years, various non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and observer bodies active in Pakistan had expressed concern over the continuing pattern of religion-based violence in the country, with violence against the Hindu and Ahmadiyya communities repeatedly highlighted. Citing observations by the rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW), India said blasphemy-related violence and attacks on religious minorities continued in Pakistan, encouraged by state persecution of minorities and discriminatory laws.
Randhir Jaiswal said Zardari’s comments were politically motivated and reflected what he called Pakistan’s state policy of hatred and intolerance. ‘Against the backdrop of this reality, the president’s comments can only be seen as a calculated political attack, driven by Pakistan’s hate- and hostility-based national policy,’ he said. India’s position is that Islamabad should not interfere in India’s internal affairs, and India has rejected such Pakistani comments on several previous occasions.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report