On January 30, Narain Das Bheel, Founder and Chief Organiser of the Hindu Organization of Sindh posted a video on the social media platform Twitter where Sikhs of Jacobabad, Sindh, Pakistan, could be heard narrating the incidents of atrocities they are facing.
The Sikh individual, identified as Harish Singh, was allegedly abused and hackled by the Muslim community.
In the video, Harish Singh said that the incident took place when he was picking up his daughters from school. He was hackled and threatened to kill. The Muslim attackers also threatened to kill his daughters.
Harish Singh also said that his daughters are afraid and refuse to go to school. He has urged the locals to stand up and save him from the atrocities.
“I am pleading with the locals of Jacobabad with folded hands that on January 26 when I was coming back after picking up my daughters, there was a lot of crowd on the road. Bike-borne Muslims abused and threatened to kill me and my daughters. They hit my scooter. I suffered an injury in my leg. My daughters are worried. They are refusing to go to school.” He added that the Sikh community living in the area gave respect and votes to the Muslim leaders. He appealed to them and the local community to support him and save his family. Singh further added, “One fish should not be allowed to spoil the pond,” said Harish Singh.
It is to be noted that Islamic extremists in Pakistan have made it difficult for minorities to live normal life. In 2017, Sikhs were excluded from the census in Pakistan. This was the first time the minority group was not included in the census.
Earlier, on December 28, 2022, a forty-year-old Hindu woman named Daya Bhel was gang-raped and beheaded. Her skin was also peeled off by a sharp weapon used by murderous savages in an agricultural field in Sinjhoro Village in Sindh, Pakistan. The woman is survived by four children.
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan is well known for the persecution of religious minorities, especially Hindus and Sikhs. Many of them have stated that they are being treated as second-class citizens in Pakistan.
Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan have also been targets of sexual harassment, and their religious practises and festivals have been abused and mocked several times.
They are being taught the Islamic curriculum by force, and they say that it is compulsory for them. The Hindu places of worship have been destroyed. Several Muslims set fire to temples and vandalised the idols of Hindu deities on the temple premises.
Minorities have been targets of religious violence and forced conversions for a long time now in the Islamic country. In the month of October, a Hindu Woman was stripped, raped and tortured for asking for payment of her daily wages. Earlier in March, an 18-year-old Hindu woman from Sindh was shot dead, and her body was thrown on the streets while she resisted her killer.
On January 16, the United Nations (UN) experts expressed grave concern about the alarming rise in coerced marriages, kidnappings and forced conversions of minor girls belonging to religious minority communities in Pakistan.
The UN experts had called for immediate action to ensure justice for the minor victims. They emphasised, “We urge the Government to take immediate steps to prevent and thoroughly investigate these acts objectively and in line with domestic legislation and international human rights commitments.”
“Perpetrators must be held fully accountable…We are deeply troubled to hear that girl as young as 13 are being kidnapped from their families, trafficked to locations far from their homes, made to marry men sometimes twice their age, and coerced to convert to Islam, all in violation of international human rights law,” UN experts added.
Human rights groups say that forced conversion and marriage of young women from the minority community is a growing problem in Pakistan.
According to a report, over 1000 underage girls belonging to the minority Hindu, Christian and Sikh communities are kidnapped and forcefully converted to Islam every year, subjected to rape and forcibly married to old men in Pakistan.
Forced conversion and kidnapping of Hindu and Sikh girls and their forced marriage to old Muslim men are mainly in the Sindh province, which hosts about 90 per cent of the minority community (Hindu and Sikh).
Notably, Systemic persecution of minorities, including Christians, Ahmadiya, Sikhs, and Hindus, through Draconian blasphemy laws, forced conversions and marriages, and extrajudicial killings have become a regular phenomenon in Pakistan. Attacks on Holy and ancient sites of religious minorities in Pakistan is also a major issue.
