Pakistan Foreign Office summons Indian diplomat

The development comes hours after India summoned a senior official of the Pakistan High Commission and lodged a strong protest over the recent cases of abduction of minor girls from the minority Hindu community in Pakistan, and urged for the safe return of them to their families.

Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Office on Saturday summoned a senior diplomat from the Indian High Commission to reject what it called the mischevious portrayal by New Delhi of isolated, fabricated, incidents involving Pakistani citizens as minorities rights issues.

In a statement, the Pakistan ministry of foreign affairs said that the Indian side was conveyed that minorities in Pakistan enjoy full protections and rights under the Constitution. It was emphasised that the legal system of Pakistan is fully capable of the rights of its citizens.

The development comes hours after India summoned a senior official of the Pakistan High Commission and lodged a strong protest over the recent cases of abduction of minor girls from the minority Hindu community in Pakistan, and urged for the safe return of them to their families, government sources said.

The Pakistani official was conveyed the grave concerns as expressed amongst various quarters of the Indian civil society at shocking and deplorable incidents involving minor girls from the minority Hindu community in Pakistan.

Two minor girls Shanti Meghwad and Sarmi Meghwad belonging to the minority Hindu community were abducted on January 14. They belong to Umar Village in Tharparkar of Sindh province.

India has time and again lodged several protests over the abduction and forced marriage of women from the Hindu community in the neighbouring country.

Recently, an angry group of residents pelted stones at Gurdwara Nankana Sahib in Pakistan on January 3. The group was led by the family of a boy who had abducted Sikh girl Jagjit Kaur, daughter of gurdwara's panthi, last year.

Days later, the body of Sikh youth identified as Ravinder Singh was found in the Chamkani police station area of Peshawar. The deceased was the brother of an Islamabad-based journalist, Harmeet Singh.