After a Taliban spokesman claimed that the group has the “right” to speak out for Kashmir’s Muslims, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi urged the insurgents to “spare” Indian Muslims, claiming that there have been no cases of extremist atrocities committed in the name of religion in the country. In an interview with the ANI news agency, the minority affairs minister stated that the Constitution is the only scripture that is followed in India, and that worshippers in mosques are not killed by bullets or bombs, nor are girls prevented from attending school.
According to Naqvi, there is a significant difference in the way India and Afghanistan are governed, and the Taliban would be better off not speaking for the country’s Muslims.
“I appeal to them (the Taliban) with folded hands that spare the Muslims of India,” the minister told ANI. “Here worshipers praying in mosques are not attacked with bullets and bombs. Here girls are not stopped from going to school, their heads and legs are not cut off.”
“The scripture of the governments of this country is the Constitution and the country functions following it,” Naqvi added.
Notably, in an interview with BBC Urdu this week, Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen had said, “As Muslims, we also have a right to raise our voice for Muslims in Kashmir, India or any other country.” The statement came as a marked contrast to what another Taliban leader, Anas Haqqani, had said in a recent interview with the CNN-News18 network: “Kashmir is not part of our jurisdiction and interference is against our policy.”
Another Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, made no mention of direct intervention in Kashmir, instead telling a Pakistani news channel that India and Pakistan should sit down together to resolve all issues. Although Taliban leader Shaheen’s remarks alarmed some in India, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Friday that in the limited engagement India has had with the Taliban, the new Afghan rulers have indicated that they will be “reasonable” in responding to New Delhi’s concerns.
“Obviously, like us, they’re also watching carefully and we have to watch Pakistan’s actions with a fine-tooth comb,” he told a group of Indian reporters at the end of his three-day official visit to Washington DC, indicating that India will adopt a wait-and-watch policy with regard to how the situation evolves in Afghanistan.
