On July 10, the Hindu community protested in front of Broken Chair in Geneva against the ongoing persecution of minorities in Pakistan. The protests come during the ongoing 44th session of the UN Human Rights Council. The protesters called for the UN to take steps against Pakistan to stop atrocities against minorities, especially Hindus and Sikhs.
The protesters called for stopping of abduction of Hindu girls, institutionalised torture of Hindus in Pak and forceful conversions to Islam. They also called upon the UNHRC to demand implementation of Human Rights in Pakistan and stop the genocide of Hindus there. The protesters who arrived at the venue held placards with slogans of their demands.
Ironically, Pakistan is one of the members of the UNHRC, representing the Asia-Pacific states.
Murders of Hindus, abduction of underage girls, forced conversion and marriage of Hindu girls to Muslims have almost become the order of the day in Pakistan. Ever since Imran Khan took the reins of the Islamic country, the atrocities have been on a over drive and minorities, especially Hindus have been forced convert or flee to India to avoid persecution.
During the last few weeks alone, since the outbreak of Corona across the world, atleast 50 cases of rape, torture, abduction, forced conversion to Islam, forced marriage of Hindu girls, discrimination against Hindus in other forms have come to the fore.
Hindus in Pakistan are not even allowed to construct a temple to pray as witnessed last week when Muslims in Islamabad openly opposed the construction of a Hindu temple in the capital. Several videos of Muslim threatening Hindus against the construction of the temple, damaging the foundation at construction site, performing namaaz at the same site have been shared across social media. A father was heard indoctrinating his two young children against Hindus in Islamabad who threatened to extinguish all Hindus if the temple was constructed.
Last month, a Christian man was murdered for buying a house in a ‘Muslim Only’ colony in Peshawar. Nadeem Joseph was first threatened few weeks ago, but on June 4th, a quarrel was picked up by his neighbours Salman Khan and later was sprayed with bullets. On June 30, Joseph died in hospital after suffering for weeks.
On June 18, a minor Hindu girl identified as Reshma, was first abducted by a Muslim man. She was then forcefully converted to Islam by the clerics. Her ordeal did not end there. Later, the Muslim clerics got the minor girl married to the kidnapper on June 18. The kidnapper has been identified as Wazir Hussain.
In early June, Muslim youths armed with weapons first attacked a Hindu family in Shah Latif Colony of Nayan Kot area of Sindh. Later they threatened the family at gun point and kidnapped the minor girl identified as Priyanka Kumari. The girl’s family have on record said that their daughter was abducted by Kaleem Allah and his friends by threatening them at gun point. This was the seventh such case of abduction of Hindu girls in Pakistan in that week alone. During the same week, a case of kidnapping and forced conversion of Aisha to Islam was reported from Mirpurkhas in Sindh.
In January this year, a Sikh youth was shot dead in Peshawar a day after attack on Nankana Sahib. The bullet ridden body of 25-year-old Parvinder Singh was found by the Pakistan Police in Chamkani Police Station area of Peshawar on Jan 05. On Jan 03, a riotous mob pelted stones at the Nankana Sahib Gurdwara targeting the Sikhs there.
Such atrocities on all minorities including Hindus continues unabated in Pakistan but Imran Khan’s government and administration are not taking any concrete action to stop such atrocities and persecution of minorities in the country.
