Pak condemns acquittal of accused in Babri demolition case

Islamabad , Oct 2 True to form, Pakistan has strongly condemned the acquittal of all the accused in the Babri Mosque case by an Indian court, terming it a shameful verdict. In its unending thirst to interfere in India's domestic affairs, it launched a broadside at the Modi government and its Hindu ideology.

Resorting to half truths, lies and prevarication, it attacked India's state institutions saying they too had succumbed to Hindu ideology.

"Pakistan strongly condemns today's shameful acquittal of the criminals responsible for demolishing the centuries old Babri Masjid in Ayodhya in 1992," said Pakistan foreign ministry spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri during a press briefing.

"Yesterday's flawed decision by the Special CBI Court in India in the Babri Masjid demolition case is yet another manifestation of permeation of extremist Hindutva ideology in all state institutions of India," Chaudhri added.

Lashing out at the Modi-led government, Chaudhri said that the Ayodhya decision is a sad reminder that Hindutva ideology has superseded principles of justice and international norms.

"The pliant judiciary's decision is a sad reminder of the fact that under the fascist BJP-RSS regime, extremist 'Hindutva' ideology takes precedence over all principles of justice and international norms," he said.

Pakistan called on the Indian government to "ensure safety, security and protection of minorities, particularly Muslims and their places of worship and other Islamic sites on which the Hindu extremists and zealots have laid unfounded claims," he added.

Pakistan's angry response came after a special court in India acquitted all of the 32-surviving accused in the Babri Mosque demolition case. The verdict in the criminal case came after almost 28 years after it was pulled down by an angry mob in Ayodhya.

"Taking almost three decades to decide on the criminal act which was televised live and happened as a result of well-planned Rath Yatras and on the instigation to mobs by the accused BJP, VHP and other leaders of Sangh Parivar, tells the world that the Hindutva-inspired Indian judiciary miserably failed to deliver the justice again," alleged the Pakistan foreign office.

"The demolition of the mosque had resulted in BJP-led communal violence leading to thousands of killings. If there was a semblance of justice in the so-called largest 'democracy', the individuals, who had boasted of the criminal act publicly, could not have been set free," the statement added.

Pakistan also reminded over the decision by Indian Supreme Court last year, handing over the site of the historic Babri mosque to Hindus, stating that "the Indian top court set a wrong direction earlier by handing over the Babri Masjid premises for building of Ram Mandir to the very Hindu parties which had demolished the historic mosque."

"The acquittal today is even against that verdict which had noted that the demolition was 'an egregious violation of rule of law'. These reprehensible developments with state complicity, coupled with RSS-BJP's deep-rooted hatred against minorities, particularly Muslims, point to India's fast descent into a Hindu Rashtra, where minorities have been relegated as second-class citizens," Pakistan foreign office maintained.

( With inputs from IANS )