Ex-MLA From Pak PM’s Party Seeks Asylum In India

Chandigarh: A former MLA from Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-Insaaf party, Baldev Kumar, on Tuesday sought political asylum from India.

The 43-year-old leader reached India with his wife and two children on August 11. Since then, the family has been staying at his in-laws’ house in Punjab’s Khanna town, around 100 km from Chandigarh.

Baldev said minorities were being persecuted in Pakistan and Hindu and Sikh leaders were being killed indiscriminately there.

“Minorities in Pakistan are not feeling secure and they have been denied rights. There is an increase in atrocities and target killings. I was put behind bars for two years,” the former MLA from Barikot seat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly told reporters in Khanna.

He further said he didn’t wish to go back to Pakistan. “I came here with my full conscious mind. I am requesting Prime Minister Narendra Modi saab to grant me asylum and provide me security,” he said.

“My brothers are there (in Pakistan). Many Sikh and Hindu families want to immigrate to India. Gurdwaras are in bad shape. There is no respect for the minorities. There are cases of forcible conversion and such acts should not happen. A case of forcible conversion of a Sikh girl to Islam came to light recently,” he added.