<span style="color: #222222;">Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Jai Ram Thakur has said that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, CAA only intends to help minority communities facing religious persecution in three neighbouring countries. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Addressing a Press Conference Uttarakhand capital Dehradun today, he said that an agreement was signed between Jawaharlal Nehru and Liaquat Ali to protect the minority communities of their respective countries. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said that India abides by this Pact but in Pakistan, the condition of minority was pathetic. He said that since, the Constitutions of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh provided for a specific state religion, many persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities have faced persecution on grounds of religion in those countries. He said that this resulted into continuous large scale migration of minorities from these countries.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' Jai Ram Thakur said that the Congress and other opposition leaders were trying to politicise the whole issue to mislead people. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said that the Act has nothing against the minority communities already living in India as they were already citizens. He said that during the last five years itself as many as 566 Muslims from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan were granted Indian citizenship.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' Mr Thakur said that the incident of Sri Nankana Sahib was a glaring example of atrocities against the minority communities in Pakistan. </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' Jai Ram Thakur said that many persons of Indian origin including persons belonging to the said minority communities from these countries have been applying for citizenship under section 5 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 but they are unable to produce proof of their Indian origin. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Hence, they are forced to apply for citizenship by naturalisation under section 6 of the said Act. He said that the Third Schedule of the Act make applicants belonging to the said communities from the aforesaid countries eligible for citizenship by naturalisation if they can establish their residency in India for five years instead of the existing eleven years.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' Chief Minister of Uttarakhand T.S. Rawat, BJP President Uttarakhand and Member of Parliament Ajay Bhatt, Vice Chairman State Civil Supplies Corporation Baldev Tomar, Political Advisor to Chief Minister Trilok Jamwal, OSD Shishu Dharma, were also present on the occasion. </span><br />''