India on Saturday bristled at Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s reported comment that Muslims on this side of the border were treated as “second-class citizens” and described the remark as “an egregious insult to all citizens of India”.

“Pakistan’s Prime Minister has yet again demonstrated his lack of understanding about India’s secular polity and ethos,” the spokesperson for the foreign ministry said.

“He overlooks the obvious fact that adherents of all faiths choose to live under the democratic polity and the progressive Constitution of India.”

Khan’s reported comment had come while the cricketer-turned-politician was addressing the launch of the Spring Tree Plantation 2019 and

Natural Reserve at Balloki in Nankana Sahib earlier in the day. “We will ensure minorities in Pakistan are treated as equal citizens with all rights and privileges unlike how the Muslims are being treated in India as second-class citizens,” he had said.

The Indian spokesperson said eminent leaders of all faiths had occupied the highest constitutional and official positions in the country. “In contrast, Pakistani citizens of non-Islamic faith are barred from occupying high constitutional offices. The minorities are often turned away from government bodies like the Economic Advisory Council of their Prime Minister, even in ‘naya Pakistan’.”

Soon after taking over last year, Khan had appointed Atif Mian, a Princeton economist of Pakistani origin, to the council but had to remove him after protests by religious fundamentalists over the appointment of an Ahmadiyya.

After Pakistan was formed, it had enacted an anti-Ahmadi law that places severe restrictions on the sect till date.

The spokesperson said Pakistan should focus on its domestic challenges rather than try and divert attention. “The Pakistan Prime Minister’s latest attempts to play with minority sentiment in India will be rejected by the people of India,” he said.

This is not the first time Khan has made such a remark. In December he had said “we have to make Pakistan a place where our minorities are treated equally” and “show this to Modi’s India”.

Like now, India had then, too, responded similarly even as both countries worked the diplomatic channels to open the Kartarpur Corridor to mark Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary this year.