Islamabad [Pakistan]: A Hindu female farm worker was beaten and gang-raped in Pakistan by the farm owner and goons.
One Hindu lady farm labourer in Bahawalpur city of Lahinde Punjab, Kusum Bai, wife of Ganga Ram, r/o 108 Chak was brutally beaten up by her employer when she went to collect her wages from the landlord Muhammad Akram on October 7.
The next morning, Akram and six of his accomplices forcibly entered her house and after tying her family members with ropes, disrobed and then brutally gang-raped her in front of her family, reported local media.
The victim’s family has alleged they have been threatened that they would kill her and the family if they registered a police complaint.
However, Kusum and her family on Monday went to Bahawalpur City Police Station which refused to entertain their complaint stating that Akram has several strong political connections and knows a number of senior officers, reported local media.
Despite the repeated claims by the Pakistani government on the safety and security of Hindus and other minorities in the country, unabated brutal attacks by Muslim radicals and feudal landlords on the minority Hindu community there are continuously being committed at a very alarming pace.
The recent spate of crimes against the Hindus in Pakistan hollows the government’s claims that it has made adequate security arrangements for minorities in the country.
In March of this year, Pooja Oad, an 18-year-old girl, was shot dead in the street of the Sindh district in March of this year after she resisted efforts to kidnap her. She was shot dead after resisting an abduction attempt in Rohi, Sukkur.
Hindus, a minority in the Islamic country of Pakistan, are frequently targeted with hatred, kidnappings, rapes, forced marriages, and death. According to the Peoples Commission for Minorities’ Rights and the Centre for Social Justice, there were 156 cases of forced conversions between 2013 and 2019. (ANI)
Meanwhile, a Hindu man was forcibly converted to Islam in Sindh on Sunday, local media reported.
Hindu youth Ajay Kumar r/o Dahraki was forcibly converted to Islam by Jamia Islamia Masjid, Larkana Sindh, Pakistan by Maulana Rashid Mahmood Soomro, General Secretary at Jamiat Ulama-e-Sindh on October 9, reported local media.
In the picture of the conversion ceremony, it is clearly visible that the victim does not seem to be happy.
Pakistan’s dilemma of forced conversions and marriages put minority women at risk and the issue of securing rights for minority women has become particularly complex in Pakistan.
Earlier in August 2021, a young Masih girl named Anita was abducted by a Muslim man “Muhammad Waseem” From Yazman City, Bahawalpur.
She said he forcibly converted her to Islam by taking her thumb impression on a paper and forced her to accept him as her husband. He kept the victim in a locked room and repeatedly raped her, reported local media.
As Pakistan moves in an increasingly conservative Islamist direction, the situation for Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities, especially that of women, is worsening, reported International Forum for Right and Security (IFFRAS).
In September this year after more than a year of torture, the victim Anita fled from her abductors and filed a petition in the Family Court at Bahawalpur seeking annulment of the False/Forced marriage, according to local media.
The father of the victim said he is very poor and the abductor is a Muslim and very influential. The abductor restricted the victim’s family from filing any complaint regarding the kidnapping of their girl by giving them death threats and they are seeking protection from the court.
The situation faced by the Hindu and Christian groups in Pakistan is bad in general, but women from these communities are the worst victims of discriminatory attitudes of the authorities, political groups, religious parties, the feudal structure and the Muslim majority.
Religious minority women and girls are abducted, forcibly converted, forcibly married and abused, and their families are unsuccessful in their attempts to challenge these crimes using legal avenues, reported IFFRAS.
While the abductions, forced conversions, forced marriages and abuse are perpetrated by individuals, the fate of religious minority women and girls is often sealed as the existing laws or handling of such cases deem any legal recourse unavailable or ineffective.
Human rights groups have documented the plight of Pakistan’s religious minorities for years, but it is only recently that these minorities have become the focus of popular discourse because of revelations on social media regarding their treatment, reported IFFRAS.
Abducting for the purpose of forced conversion and marriage is a major issue in Pakistan. Most of the victims are Christian and Hindu girls and young women, forced to wed against their will to much older Muslim men.
The plight of women in Pakistan is increasing day by day as a fresh report has stated that nearly 6,754 women were abducted in the country’s Punjab province in the first half of 2021. Out of that, 1890 women were raped, 3721 were tortured and 752 children were raped, Duniya News reported. (With inputs from ANI)
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