Monitoring Desk
NEW DELHI: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday sent a strong message to India urging the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to “confront extremist Hindus” and “stop the massacre of Muslims” following the Delhi riots.
At least 44 people, most of them Muslims, were killed and hundreds injured in the worst riots in the Indian capital in decades, triggered by clashes between supporters of a new citizenship law and those against it.
Social media showers praise on Hindu man taking down saffron flag from Delhi mosque
“The hearts of Muslims all over the world are grieving over the massacre of Muslims in India,” Khamenei said in a tweet in English, just days after New Delhi rebuked Iran’s foreign minister for commenting on the same issue.
Khamenei.ir
@khamenei_ir
The hearts of Muslims all over the world are grieving over the massacre of Muslims in India. The govt of India should confront extremist Hindus & their parties & stop the massacre of Muslims in order to prevent India’s isolation from the world of Islam.#IndianMuslimslnDanger
“Iran condemns the wave of organized violence against Indian Muslims,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had tweeted on Monday, in response to which New Delhi had summoned the Islamic Republic’s ambassador and lodged a protest.
“We do not expect such comments from a country like Iran,” ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said in a statement later.
The citizenship law provides non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan a fast track to Indian citizenship. Modi’s Hindu nationalist government says this is required to help minorities from those mainly Muslim countries.
PM Imran thanks Erdogan, Khamenei
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday thanked Iran’s supreme leader and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for speaking against the oppression and massacre of Indian Muslims and Kashmiris by the Hindu supremacist Modi regime.
In tweets, the prime minister regretted that only a few voices from the Muslim world were speaking out and condemning the atrocities, and that more voices were being raised in the West condemning the Hindu supremacist Modi regime’s massacre of Muslims in India and Kashmiris in the Indian Occupied Kashmir.
@khamenei_ir
The hearts of Muslims all over the world are grieving over the massacre of Muslims in India. The govt of India should confront extremist Hindus & their parties & stop the massacre of Muslims in order to prevent India’s isolation from the world of Islam.#IndianMuslimslnDanger
He tweeted, “I want to thank Supreme Leader Khamenei, & President Erdogan for speaking against the oppression & massacre of Muslims in India & Kashmiris in IOJK by the Hindu Supremacist Modi regime”.
The prime minister wrote, “Sadly, few voices from the Muslim World are speaking out & condemning this; & more voices are being raised in the West condemning the Hindu Supremacist Modi regime’s massacre of Muslims in India & Kashmiris in IOJK”.
