Pakistan urges world to stop India from pursuing anti-Muslim steps.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday urged the international community to take practical steps to stop Indian government from pursuing discriminatory and anti-minority policies.

At a weekly news briefing in Islamabad, Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said the world community must ensure protection of minorities, especially the Muslims, and their places of worships and properties in India. She said the large-scale targeted violence against Muslims that took place in New Delhi in the backdrop of highly communal statements by BJP leaders has been a matter of great concern for Pakistan and is highly condemnable. She also condemned the desecration of places of worships in New Delhi. She said at least 14 mosques and one Dargah were reportedly burnt down by Hindutva vigilantes within a span of three to four days. She said these sacred places were deliberately rampaged whilst copies of Holy Quran were also desecrated.

Voicing concerns over gross human rights violations in Indian-held Kashmir and attempts to bring about demographic change there, the spokesperson said Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute which has been reaffirmed repeatedly by the UN Security Council, the UN secretary general and most recently by the OIC's special envoy on Jammu and Kashmir.

Responding to a question about Afghanistan, the spokesperson said Pakistan has felicitated Ashraf...