Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan flee to India fearing prosecution

Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan have left the country after claiming they were being persecuted by the authorities because of their religious affiliation.
After arriving in the Indian city of Amritsar, the religious refugees said they did not want to return because the situation for Hindus and Sikhs in an overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan had grown intolerable.
The Head of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, met with those who were forced to flee, saying the Sikhs and Hindu minority communities in Pakistan have recently been forced to leave their country after being threatened with violence solely because they were not Muslims.
“The committee informed the Indian government about the religious persecution of the Hindu and Sikh minorities in Pakistan. We will soon meet Home Minister Amit Shah and will request that the government grant citizenship to these immigrants,” Manjinder Singh Sirsa said.
The incident comes on the heels of widespread protests by hundreds of housands of Indians, mostly students, who protested the Indian government’s recent controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, which simplifies Indian citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Parsis, and Jains who arrived in India after December 31, 2014, from neighbouring Muslim countries.
The law gives privileges to non-Muslim immigrants, but at the same time paves the way for followers of Islam to be unfairly disadvantaged when they immigrate to India.
Although Pakistan denies the allegations of attack on the Sikh community, religious discrimination in Pakistan is common. According to some reports, Pakistan’s religious minorities often face discrimination and sometimes even violence.