Expressing discontent over the incidents of religious persecution of minorities in Pakistan, India summoned a senior official from the Pakistan High Commission and issued a strong demarche over shocking incidents, which exposes the treatment of minorities in ‘Naya Pakistan’ of Imran khan.
A Hindu girl was allegedly kidnapped from her wedding and forcibly converted to Islam in Matiari district of Sindh province with the support of the local administration and the police. India also issued a demarche regarding desecration of Mata Rani Bhatiyani temple in Tharparkar Sindh province on January 26.
Pakistani PM Imran Khan, who is trying to project himself as a champion of the minorities, is exposed by the way his government is supporting and promoting the persecution of the minorities particularly the Sikhs and the Hindus in his own country. A Hindu shrine dedicated to Mata Rani Bhatiyani was vandalised in Chachro, Tharparkar area of Pakistan’s Sindh province after miscreants set fire to holy books and idols.
Notably, two minor girls belonging to the minority Hindu community namely, Shanti Meghwad and Sarmi Meghwad were abducted from a village in Sindh province on January 14. The incidents of abduction, kidnapping and forced conversion of Hindu girls are increasing every day in Pakistan. The local administration, police and religious clerics are playing a vital role in the persecution of Hindu minority especially in Sindh province of Pakistan.
Confirming the role of the government, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) too had raised this issue through its annual report ‘State of Human Rights’, announcing, “Around one thousand cases of Hindu and Christian girls were estimated in the province of Sindh alone in 2018. The cities where such cases occurred frequently included Umerkot, Tharparkar, Mirpurkhas, Badin, Karachi, Tando Allahyar, Kashmore and Ghotki.” In the annual document, the HRCP said the government has done little to stop such forced marriages and urged the lawmakers to pass effective legislation to end the practice. Even after this, the Pakistani government took no action over such incidents, making a law is still a distant dream. The report even highlighted the insensitive role of the police, it said, “Police are insensitive and indifferent at best in most cases,” the report said. It further added that the “minorities continued to face harassment, arrest or even death for simply living their lives in accordance with their beliefs in Pakistan in 2018.”
Surprisingly, incidents of such kind are increasing day by day in a country which has a negligible number of minorities as it either got killed or took refuge in the neighbouring country, India as Pakistan has been persecuting the Hindus, Sikhs and Christians since its inception.
India has been deeply concerned with the religious persecution of the minorities in Pakistan; CAA which seeks to support them is one of the distinguished attempts of India to support them. Apart from shaming the country at world stage over terrorism, it appears from the recent initiative of India that it will leave no stone unturned to make Pakistan realize its crime with regard to religious persecution of the minorities.