Pakistan condemns restrictions on Friday prayers in India and alerts the international community to the growing phenomenon of Islamophobia

Pakistan has strongly condemned restrictions on Friday prayers and attacks on Muslim houses of worship in India.
In a statement, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry called on the international community to be aware of the growing phenomenon of Islamophobia and violent attacks against Muslims in India, and to take immediate steps to protect them and their places of worship.
“We are also deeply concerned about the continued vandalism of mosques and attacks on Islamic places of worship by the Sangh Privar extremists of Hindu nationalist organizations in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana,” said Asim Iftikhar Ahmed, a spokesman for the Pakistani ministry.
The statement confirmed that “the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in the northern state of Haryana imposed restrictions on the performance of Friday prayers.”
He added, “In another despicable act of sacrilege to Islamic religious places, it was reported that Hindu extremist groups dumped cow dung in several mosques during Friday prayers.”
For a month, right-wing Hindu groups in the Gurugram region of the state of Haryana, adjacent to the capital New Delhi, have been trying to prevent Muslims from performing Friday prayers in mosques authorized by the Indian authorities.
On October 29, the local police arrested several workers of right-wing Hindu groups in Gurugram after they tried to disrupt prayers.
The Pakistani official pointed out that “right-wing Hindu groups affiliated with the BJP also carried out violent attacks, destroying Muslim shops, mosques, and shrines in Maharashtra.”
The latest violent attacks against Muslims began last month from the state of Tripura (northeast) when Hindu extremist mobs vandalized Muslim houses of worship and shops.
According to the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights, at least 16 mosques were vandalized, and Muslim-owned homes and shops were set on fire in Tripura last month.