Baldev Kumar, a member of Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has sought asylum in India saying that he felt threatened and insecure in Pakistan. Baldev, who married Bhavna Sethi, an Indian national from Khanna in Ludhiana district, has already shifted his wife and two children, including an 11-year-old thalassemia-affected daughter, to India in March.
Baldev, who was briefly a Member Provincial Assembly (MPA; equivalent to an MLA here) on PTI’s ticket from Swat, said minorities are at a great risk in Pakistan, as they are being threatened by the majority Muslim community.
Baldev was arrested on the charge of murdering his alleged rival, Swaran Singh, MPA and member of PTI, but later exonerated and released. Ever since, Baldev has been living in the guise of a Sikh in Pakistan. Swaran Singh was also a member of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) and was president of PSGPC for a short period in 2006. Singh was an adviser to the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Parvez Khan Khattak.
On April 22, Swaran Singh had gone to his village Banur near Swat valley, where he was shot dead while out for an evening stroll. Baldev was arrested on the charge of paying around $10,000 to the gunner to kill Singh. The shooter was also arrested by the police. “Rumours are being spread by the Pakistan government against me, since I always raised voice against injustice,” Baldev says, adding that he would seek asylum in India with a heavy heart. Baldev had come to India, along with a Sikh jatha, and has stayed back.
To buttress his claims of atrocities on minority communities in Pakistan, he alleged that there have been several cases of atrocities on minorities, especially on Sikhs, but that they had kept quiet. “The same thing happened in case of the conversion of Jagjeet Kaur to Islam,” he said.
