Expressing “extreme concern” over the ban on students wearing a hijab in the Indian state of Karnataka, Pakistan summoned the Indian Charge d’affaires.
In a statement, the country’s foreign ministry said that the Indian Charge d'Affaires was conveyed the government's "grave concern and condemnation on the deeply reprehensible act" of banning Muslim students from wearing hijab in Karnataka, reports Dawn.
Students at a state-run high school in the Indian state were told not to wear hijabs last month, an edict that soon spread to other educational institutions in the state. A hijab-clad student was also heckled and jeered at by a mob of Hindutva supporters in Karnataka on Tuesday.
"The Charge d’ Affaires was urged to convey to the government of India Pakistan’s extreme concern over the anti-hijab campaign, being spearheaded by RSS-BJP combine in Karnataka, which is part of its larger exclusionist and majoritarian agenda aimed at dehumanizing and demonizing Muslim women," the statement reads.
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The government of Karnataka, where 12% of the population is Muslim and which is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has said in an order that students should follow dress codes set by schools, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
Local media reported last week that several schools in Karnataka had denied entry to Muslim girls wearing the hijab citing an education ministry order, prompting protests from parents and students.
In one incident in a video widely shared online, a lone Muslim student wearing the hijab is surrounded by Hindu male youths shouting religious slogans while trying to enter her school in Karnataka.
Opposition parties and critics accuse the BJP government at federal and state level of discriminating against the minority Muslim population. Modi has defended his record and says his economic and social policies benefit all Indians.
Also Read- Burqa-clad student stands up to mob in Karnataka amid hijab row
Meanwhile, hundreds of students in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata on Wednesday chanted slogans and blocked roads in protest of a hijab ban in the southern state of Karnataka, as a row over wearing the head covering in schools intensifies.
Hindu students mounted counter-protests, flocking to schools in recent days in support of the ban, forcing the Karnataka state government to shut schools and colleges for three days to ease tensions between the two communities.
