India and Pakistan clashed on Friday at the United Nations as Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan accused the rival of a “reign of terror” on Muslims, drawing a stern rebuke.
Even for Pakistan, which routinely castigates India at the world body, Imran’s speech to the annual summit was strikingly loaded as he accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of a plan to “purge India of Muslims.”
“The worst and most pervasive form of Islamophobia now rules India,” he said in an address, delivered by video due to Covid-19 precautions.
“The hate-filled Hindutva ideology, propagated by the fascist RSS-BJP regime, has unleashed a reign of fear and violence against India’s 200 million-strong Muslim community,” he said.
Premier Khan was referring to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and the affiliated Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a century-old Hindu revivalist movement with a paramilitary component.
Under Modi, India has rescinded the statehood of Kashmir, its only Muslim-majority region, pushed through a citizenship law that critics call discriminatory and has witnessed repeated flare-ups of religious-based violence.
