The hostility between Hindus and Muslims dates back to 1947 when India was partitioned along communal lines to create a Muslim-majority Pakistan. Most upper-caste Hindus fled Pakistan for India, leaving behind low-caste Hindus who were mainly impoverished, uneducated and worked in menial labour.
Pakistan is home to 849614 “lower caste” Hindus, a 2.15 per cent minority in a predominantly Muslim country, according to the official 2017 census. Pakistanis from the “lower caste” in a Muslim country where gender inequality is prevalent, Hindu women are typically at the bottom of the hierarchy. However, sexual impulses can transform even the most untouchables into desirable things. A poll of 750 households confirms what Dalits have long known: many of their girls and women are raped by Muslim men, often in group rapes. These are rarely reported for fear of further victimisation by a police force that, in any event, is notorious for failing to prosecute the culprits. Bhirawali Mai Bheel, a 13-year-old girl from Bahawalpur District, was kidnapped and raped for 22 days before being abandoned at a bus stop by two men. Even though this case made it to the police, the family eventually accepted compensation of Rs 25,000 and dropped the allegations.
With the rise of Islamic militancy in the 1980s, this vulnerable segment of society became even more susceptible. In recent years, the community has witnessed a surge in kidnappings and forced conversions of its women by Muslim men, who vigilante organisations frequently aid.
The ability of these groups to intimidate minorities and their supporters was demonstrated in February of this year when Rinkle Kumari, a 17-year-old Hindu girl, went missing from her home in Mirpur Mathelo town of Sindh province and resurfaced at a shrine run by a local influential Muslim family. The shrine’s armed devotees opened fire to celebrate her “conversion to Islam” and marriage to a local Muslim teenager. While she claimed in court that she converted on her own volition, her parents said she was intimidated and was taken from her home by four armed men.
According to human rights organisations, many Hindu girls have been abducted and converted to Islam, especially in Sindh province, home to most Pakistani Hindus. Extortionists and criminal gangs engaging in kidnapping for ransom prey on the wealthiest among them, particularly those in business.
Hatred is instilled in society due to the inappropriate representation of minorities in curricula and school textbooks, and youngsters are denied the right to study the religion of their choice.
Women and girls face double discrimination through religious intolerance, most notably through forced conversion and marriages. Perpetrators of faith-based violence do not fear retribution because there is widespread impunity for such crimes, which promotes the commission of additional atrocities. The judiciary officials involved in prosecuting these offences cannot work because their safety is not adequately protected.
The Pakistani Government have failed to ensure equality, dignity, the rule of law, and the protection of human rights for all Pakistanis, making them liable for grave violations of international human rights law, including the two International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, as well as the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This pattern of systemic discrimination has created a social atmosphere in which religious and political violence has spread throughout the country, courtesy of a tiny handful of extremist individuals. Authorities have also failed to adequately confront such violence, as evidenced by the failure to respond to terrorists seeking jizya (protection money) from Sikhs in FATA. While Article 22 of Pakistan’s Constitution states that no one is compelled to study a religion other than their own, the reality is quite different. The Government has increased the prominence of Islamic references in topics other than Islamiyat (Islamic studies) in primary and secondary schools, particularly in English and Urdu textbooks and literature.
The targets are usually minority young Hindu girls because they want to stop the Hindu population in Pakistan and fasten the growth of the Muslim population. The Government should form a commission to look into reports of kidnapping and forced conversions. The involvement of religious clerics in the latter practice must be halted immediately.
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