Minor Hindu Boy Gangraped, Murdered in Sindh (Pakistan)

The minor Hindu boy went missing on Friday (November 19) when the family was busy with Guru Nanak's birthday celebrations. His body was found in an abandoned house a day later.

An 11-year-old Hindu boy was gang-raped and brutally murdered in Pakistan's Sindh province on Friday (November 19). The victim, who was playing near his house, went missing on Friday (November 19) evening when the family was busy with Guru Nanak's birthday celebrations, and his body was later found on Saturday (November 20) in an abandoned house in Babarloi town in Khairpur Mir area of the province.

"The entire family was busy with Guru Nanak's birthday events. We do not know how the child went missing. He was found dead in the house at 11 pm," The Express Tribune quoted Raj Kumar, a relative of the child.

Raj Kumar added that the victim was a grade five student and was born in 2011. He also said that the whole area had been gripped by fear after the news of the crime spread like wildfire.

The Station House Officer (SHO) of Babarloi police station said the boy was strangled to death before the culprits sexually assaulted him, and the police have arrested two suspects, one of whom has confessed the crime.

Zubair Mahar of Child Protection Authority, Sukkur, confirmed that there were torture marks on the victim's body and this was the second such incident in the last few weeks in the province.

"A short while ago, a minor girl from the Hindu community in Saleh Pat, Sukkur district, went missing. The police have also announced Rs 2.5 million reward for her recovery, but it has all been in vain," PTI quoted Mahar.

"Religious minorities remained unable to enjoy the freedom of religion or belief guaranteed to them under the constitution. For the Ahmadiya community in Punjab, this included the desecration of several sites of worship. Both the Hindu and Christian communities in Sindh and Punjab continued to report cases of forced conversion. In Punjab, girls as young as 14 were forcibly converted and coerced into marriage", an Observer Research Foundation (ORF) report published in May 2020 noted.

As reported by the Organiser in August this year, an 8-year-old Hindu boy in the Rahim Yar Khan district of Pakistan's Punjab was charged with blasphemy for urinating in a madrasa library. 

According to a report published by The Organization for World Peace on September 26 this year, "Blasphemy laws have a long history in Pakistan all the way back, from form the British Colonial rule. According to section 295-C of the blasphemy penal code, the code charges anyone who makes derogatory terms against the prophet's name or Quran. Most religious minority groups are continuously accused of blasphemy without any proof and face mob violence."