Former Pakistan MLA From Imran Khan’s Party Baldev Kumar Reaches India, May Seek Asylum

The 43-year-old ex lawmaker said that he no longer wants to return to Pakistan as minorities are being prosecuted in Pakistan.

Image: ANI

New Delhi: Former Pakistani lawmaker Baldev Kumar, from Prime Minister Imran Khan's party Tehreek-e-Insaf party, has reached Punjab in India along with his family members to seek political asylum from New Delhi, officials said on Tuesday. He was an MLA from Barikot (reserved) seat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly. In what can be termed as an evidence of Pakistan’s oppression on minorities, the 43-year-old ex lawmaker said that he no longer wants to return to Pakistan as minorities are being prosecuted in Pakistan. He said that killings of Hindu and Sikh leaders being carried out on a large scale. “Not only minorities but even Muslims are not safe there (Pakistan). We are surviving in Pakistan with lot of difficulties. I request Indian government to give me asylum here. I will not go back,” he said. “Indian Government should announce a package so that the Hindu and Sikh families staying in Pakistan can come here. I want Modi Sahab do something for them. They are tortured there,” he said. In the year 2016 the sitting MLA from his constituency was assassinated and Baldev Singh was charged with false murder case and acquitted only in 2018 Sardar Soran Singh, also a lawmaker from Tehreek-e-Insaf party who was elected to the provincial assembly on a minority seat, was shot dead in April 2016 in Buner district of the province.