With 108 Pakistani Hindu migrants having obtained Indian citizenship in Jodhpur on Sunday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has requested the Centre to simplify and expedite the process for granting citizenship to the members of the Hindu community displaced from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Jodhpur Collector Ravi Kumar Surpur distributed the citizenship certificates to 108 former Pakistanis on Sunday, while disposing of their cases pending for several years. The migrant-turned-Indian citizens turned jubilant and raised slogans such as “Bharat Mata Ki Jai.”
Most of the Hindu migrants, who had crossed the international border and settled in western Rajasthan following their persecution in Pakistan’s Sindh province, are engaged in small businesses and menial work. The education of their children was held up for want of citizenship, as they were unable to get admission in the local schools and colleges.
