CAA is `ray of hope', says Sindhi migrant living in Aurangabad

A member of the Sindhi community who migrated from Pakistan in the 1990s and settled down in Aurangabad in Maharashtra is hopeful that he and others like him would get Indian citizenship soon with the passage of the new amendment. The controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act provides for grant of citizenship to Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians who migrated from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before 2015 due to persecution.

"We are expecting grant of citizenship with less paperwork now," said Vikram Talreja, who is living here for nearly three decades. He was speaking after taking part in a procession in support of the CAA.

"We arrived here from Pakistan in 1991, but we are still waiting for citizenship. The amended Act has given us a ray of hope," he said. "We suffered a lot in Pakistan. There were frequent riots. We applied to the Indian government for shelter and were given long-term visa," he said.

Kishanchand Tanwani, member of the Sindhi community and local BJP leader, said there were around 90 Sindhi migrants from Pakistan living in the city. Earlier, the city had witnessed a huge protest march against the CAA, which, its critics allege, discriminates against Muslims and violates the principle of secularism..