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Pakistan summons India’s Charge d’Affaires over hijab controversy

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Pakistan has summoned India’s Chargé d’Affaires in India to the foreign ministry and conveyed the government’s serious concerns over the ban on Muslim schoolgirls from wearing the hijab in Karnataka.

Indian diplomats were conveyed Pakistan’s deep concern over alleged religious intolerance, negative stereotypes, stigma and discrimination against Indian Muslims, the foreign ministry said in a statement late Wednesday.

The statement stressed that the Indian government must hold the perpetrators of harassment of women in Karnataka accountable and take appropriate measures to ensure the safety, security and well-being of Muslim women.

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The foreign ministry’s statement came after a senior Pakistani minister intervened in Karnataka’s ongoing hijab row on Wednesday, with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi saying depriving Muslim girls of education was a gross violation of basic human rights.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Hussain said what was happening in India was worrisome and stressed that wearing a hijab is a personal choice, and like any other garment, it must be left to citizens to choose freely.

In response to tweets by Pakistani ministers, Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in New Delhi on Wednesday that some were giving “common color” to decisions on dress codes and institutional discipline, which are They “conspired to slander India’s inclusive culture”.

Naqvi also hit back, saying that Pakistan is a “jungle of crime and cruelty” for minorities and is promoting tolerance and secularism to India.

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Naqvi told reporters in New Delhi that the reality is that the socio-educational-religious rights of ethnic minorities are being trampled recklessly in Pakistan.

He asserted that equal rights, dignity and prosperity for minorities, including Muslims, were part of India’s commitment to tolerance, harmony and inclusion.

The hijab controversy first erupted in January at a government pre-university college in Udupi, when six students who violated the dress code and wore hijabs to class were asked to leave the campus. It later spread to other parts of the state, and Hindu students also showed up in saffron shawls.

Complete News Source : Business Standard

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