Uttar Pradesh Shia Waqf Board has urged the Union government to enlarge the scope of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill and include Shias in the list of protected non-Muslim communities who would be given citizenship on account of their persecution in neighbouring countries.
The Shia Waqf Board maintained that Shias were also a persecuted community in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan along with Hindus, Sikhs, Jain, Parsis and Christians.
Shia Waqf Board Chairman Waseem Rizvi has written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, claiming that the community is being persecuted in several countries and the government should take adequate measures to protect them.
Rizvi said that besides Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Shias were a minuscule minority in Saudi Arabia, Syria and several other countries, where they were being persecuted on grounds of religion.
He said that the majority Sunni Muslims had exploited Shias ever since the inception of Islam over 1,400 years ago.
“We are a minority within the minority. If you are taking Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians under the ambit of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, then you must include Shias as well,” Rizvi said in the letter.
While the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the National Register of Citizenship counts illegal migrants on the basis of a cut-off date. So far the NRC has been implemented in Assam leaving over 19 lakh people stranded.