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This time in the mouth of Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, 'Akhand Bharat'. Last Friday, at an event on Pakistan's Independence Day, he claimed that Pakistani Hindus prefer to live in Pakistan rather than in India. At the same time, he said, Pakistan's Hindu minority can practice their religion freely without any hindrance.

On Friday, the Pakistani President attended a ceremony to mark Pakistan's Independence Day. Speaking there, he said, “Indians have a different view. They believe in the idea of ​​a single India. But Pakistan is a Muslim-majority country. That is the identity of Pakistan. Pakistan has 3 to 4 per cent Hindu population. Hindus here are as independent as anywhere else. They will prefer Pakistan to India. We are Muslims with a mindset of tolerance.”

Significantly, however, human rights organizations around the world have repeatedly expressed concern over the hostile treatment of minorities in Pakistan. According to a report by Human Rights Watch this year, blasphemy laws and discriminatory laws lead to violence against minorities. Unreasonable arrests, harassment and beatings happen. Not only this, the report also highlights the issues of forced marriage and conversion of Hindu and Christian women.

According to the report of the European 'Country of Origin Information Network', the number of Hindu communities in Pakistan has decreased due to social and religious reasons. In 1941, about 20 percent of the total population of West Pakistan was non-Muslim. But a decade later, it dropped to just 4 percent. The report claims that about 5,000 Hindus leave Pakistan every year due to religious persecution. Many of them migrated to India. Some even migrated to other countries.