By Kritika Gangwar
Pune: Union Home Ministry of India on Tuesday announced that minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, which includes Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians are allowed to stay back in India who entered the country without legal travel documents and passports till 31st December, 2024.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) enacted last year which implied that the members from these minority communities who came to India on or before 31st December 2014 will be allowed citizenship of India.
The recent Immigration and Foreigners Act allows the stay of the immigrants who entered the country without passport and other legal documents till December 2024 but it doesn’t promise citizenship to them. These minority communities like Pakistani Hindus now sigh in relief as they were worried about being thrown from the country.
The minority communities which include Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Christians, Parsis and Buddhists from countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who had no option but to take refuge in distress and hide under shelters in India because of the fear of religious persecution and entered the country on or before 31st December, 2024 without valid travel documents or expired documents will be free from such issues as the Union Home Ministry announced.
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said, “a citizen of India entering into India by land or by air over the Nepalese or Bhutanese frontier, a citizen of Nepal or Bhutan border or if he possesses a valid passport while entering or exiting India from or to a place other than Nepal or Bhutan but not from China, Macau, Hong Kong or Pakistan”.