Around 1,500 Hindus, who had come to India from Pakistan to escape religious atrocities, returned to their country in the last 18 months after they failed to get citizenship here, a media report claimed on Monday. There are around 25,000 Pakistani Hindus in India waiting for citizenship, but they do not have money and resources to fulfil the required formalities, according to Simant Lok Sangathan, an advocacy group for the rights of Pakistani migrants in India.
“From 2021 till this year around 1,500 Pakistani Hindus have gone back to Pakistan. Due to the slackness of the state government along with central government there is a lot of disappointment among the Hindus refugees from Pakistan,” Sangathan president Hindu Singh Sodha was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
According to the TOI report, only 2,000 Pakistani Hindus were granted Indian citizenship in the last five years. As per rule, a person seeking Indian citizenship has to renew his passport, but the Pakistan embassy has increased the renewal fee which the refugees find difficult to pay.
“The renewal fee of a passport is Rs 8,000 to 10,000 at the Pakistan embassy. There are many loopholes in giving citizenship due to which Pakistani Hindus are facing several problems,” Sodha told the daily.
In 2018, the Ministry of Home Affairs had authorised 16 district collectors across seven states to register members from the minority communities as Indian citizens through an online application facility. In 2021, the MHA extended this authorisation to the collectors of 13 additional districts.
