108 Hindu Refugees From Pakistan Living In Ahmedabad Get Indian Citizenship

Over a hundred Hindu refugees from Pakistan, who have been living in Ahmedabad after arriving in India, were granted citizenship on Tuesday.

Gujarat's Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghavi handed citizenship certificates to the 108 refugees at the district collector's office, a state government release.

The refugees, who had migrated to India years ago, thanked Mr Sanghavi and the district authorities for the speedy processing of their citizenship applications, it said.

Mr Sanghavi congratulated them on becoming Indian citizens and urged them to commit themselves "to build a new India", it added.

Both the state and the central government were committed to helping refugees in all possible ways and bringing them into the mainstream of society, the minister added.

So far, 1,149 Pakistani Hindus have been granted Indian citizenship by the Ahmedabad District Collectorate, the minister said.

Gazette notifications of 2016 and 2018 empowered the district collectors of Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, and Kutch in Gujarat to grant Indian citizenship to the people from the minority communities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, the release said.

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