Pak Hindus ask for refugee status or citizenship from India

A group of Pakistani Hindus have urged the Indian government to grant them either refugee status or citizenship, claiming that they are not treated well in their home country.

The group members are currently on a visit to the city on tourist visas. "If the Indian government can't give us citizenship then they should give us refugee status...We are not treated well in our country," Shobha Ram, one of the Pakistani Hindus, said.

"Since January, around 400 families have come here from Pakistan and are taking refuge with their relations in parts of Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan," Surinder Kumar Billa, who heads the All India Shivsena, an organisation working for Pakistani Hindus, said.

"The government is doing injustice to the Hindus by not giving them a permanent settlement," he alleged, and demanded that the government should consider their cases on humanitarian ground.