Home ministry receives Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti’s asylum plea
The Union Home ministry is examining Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti's application seeking political asylum in India
New Delhi: The Union home ministry on Wednesday received an application by Baloch leader Brahamdagh Bugti, seeking political asylum in India. The ministry is currently examining the request, a senior government official said.
“We have received Bugti’s application for political asylum and it is under examination," a home ministry official told Press Trust of India.
Bugti, 35, founder of the Baloch Republican Party, had put in a formal request for asylum with the Indian consulate in Geneva on Monday. The consulate forwarded the request to the external affairs ministry, who subsequently, on Wednesday, forwarded the request to the home ministry.
Bugti is the grandson of Nawab Akbar Bugti, a Baloch nationalist leader killed by the Pakistani Army in 2006.
India, however, does not have a formal asylum policy. The last instance of India offering asylum goes back to 1959 when the Jawaharlal Nehru government had granted Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and his followers.
India is also not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol and does not have a national refugee protection.
In an earlier interview with Mint, Bugti had expressed confidence that India would accept his plea for asylum. “The reason I want asylum in India is that though I have protection in Switzerland, I am not getting political status and travel papers. I want to travel and campaign for my people, present the Baloch case before the US Congress, the US administration. I don’t think India will reject my asylum application," he said.
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