Two Hindu girls 'abducted' in Pakistan's Sindh province, community demands protection

KARACHI: Two Hindu girls have been abducted from their homes in Pakistan's southern Sindh province in recent days, community leaders said and demanded safeguards to stop "frequent kidnappings" and "forced conversions". Shiva Kachi, a Hindu community leader from Hyderabad, said, "We are getting information about such incidents nearly every week now from different parts of the province and no one seems to care.There is so much fear in the Hindu community now."
Kachi heads the Pakistan Darewar Ittehad, an organisation which is fighting for the recovery of Hindu girls kidnapped, allegedly forcibly converted to Islam and married off to Muslim men who are much older in many instances.
In the recent days there have been two incidents in Khairpur and Mirpurkhas of two girls being abducted from their homes by armed men, he said.
In the first instance, a 16-year-old girl was kidnapped from her home in Khairpur while a class 7th student was abducted from Digri town near Mirpurkhas.
Kachi said in the first case, a Muslim youth claimed she eloped with him and married him after converting to Islam.
He said the Pakistan government and provincial authorities needed to place safeguards to ensure the safety of the Hindu community.
Ramesh Kumar, a social activist from Hyderabad city, claims once the girls are abducted, even the police don't cooperate and refuse to file FIRs on behalf of the affected families who are mostly uneducated and poor.
"There is a nexus between some clerics, policemen and influential Muslims and the Hindu community suffers," he claimed.
Hindus are not the only minority who claim they are discriminated against and face injustice. On Tuesday, an Ahmadi family (Ahmadiyyas are declared non-Muslims in Pakistan) saw their under-construction house vandalised in Karachi's Shah Faisal colony.
"Everything was okay. We've been constructing the house for the last few months but yesterday someone spread the rumour that Ahmadis were building a worship place and today a mob came and badly damaged the under-construction building," Shahid Ahmed said.
In many instances, the 500,000-strong Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan don't reveal themselves openly for fear of repercussions.
Kumar also referred to the incident of firing in a Hindu temple, Rama Par, in Hyderabad city and said so far the police were delaying arresting all those responsible for entering the temple and opening fire during a religious ceremony.
Scores of Hindus held a protest on Monday in Hyderabad demanding the arrest of those responsible for the alleged assault on the temple in which five people were injured.
"Police have filed complaints against 11 people but made just two arrests," he said.
A religious ceremony was taking place at the temple when a scuffle broke out between two groups of the Hindu community and this led to the involvement of outsiders who came and opened fire in the temple while the ceremony had not finished.