Marginalised groups under attack in Pakistan, Bangladesh: India

India on Friday (October 3, 2025) hit out at Pakistan and Bangladesh over their treatment of marginalised communities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the Chittagong Hill Tracts, respectively.

“We believe that it is a natural consequence of Pakistan’s oppressive approach and its systemic plundering of resources from these territories, which remain under its forcible and illegal occupation. Pakistan must be held accountable for its horrific human rights violations,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

He was responding to reports of police crackdown and Internet shutdown in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Protests have been continuing in the region under the banner of Awami Action Committee, demanding political reforms, subsidised food items, lower electricity bills, free education, and health facilities.

The protests have reportedly brought life to a standstill in capital Muzaffarabad. According to the Pakistani newspaper Dawnat least 10 people had died and several were injured in police firing.

Rejecting claims by a Bangladesh interim government adviser that India was extending support to protesters in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Mr. Jaiswal said Dhaka was “unable to maintain law and order situation” and had “routinely sought to shift the blame elsewhere”.

“We categorically reject these false and baseless allegations. The interim government, which is unable to maintain law and order in Bangladesh, has routinely sought to shift the blame elsewhere, it would do well to introspect and conduct serious investigations into the action of local extremists committing violence, arson and land grab against the minority communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts,” Mr. Jaiswal said.

The situation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts spiralled out of control last Sunday when at least three persons belonging to the indigenous Marma and Mog communities were killed by the Bangladesh Army personnel, prompting calls for international intervention to protect the rights of the indigenous people in the region, where armed groups had signed a pact for autonomy and development with the previous Sheikh Hasina-led government in1997.

Speaking to presspersons in Dhaka on Tuesday, Home adviser Lieutenant-General Jehangir Alam Choudhury (retd) held “India and fascist groups” responsible for the unrest in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and said, “We are taking all-out measures to ensure that they cannot be successful”.

“A vested quarter is trying to create unrest to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere of Durga puja of the Hindu community. They attempted to prevent the festival from being celebrated with religious fervour and festivity. This vested group is behind the Khagrachhari incident,” Mr. Choudhury said.

The violence in Khagrachhari had flared up after a teenager was reportedly raped and the local people were subjected to police action when they sought justice.