It was on the early morning of February 24 in the year 2012, when Rinkle Kumari, a resident of Mirpur Mathelo town, under Ghotki district of Sindh province of Pakistan was abducted at gunpoint by Naved Shah and 4 others. In no time after the abduction Rinkle was converted to Islam and married off to Naved. Later on, it was revealed that the abductors of Rinkle Kumari were backed by Pir of Bharchundi Dargah, Mian Mithoo.
On the same day Rinkle’s family was informed that she was in custody at the Dargah and had embraced Islam and married Naved. Shocked by the kidnapping the family of Rinkle filed a police complaint and did everything in their capacity to bring her back though their efforts proved to be futile as one after another courts of Pakistan including the apex court succumbed to the pressure exerted by the radicals and gave verdict in the favor of Rinkle’s abductors.
Rinkle was first produced before the Ghotki district court where she pleaded that she was kidnapped and wanted to go back to her parents, she retariated the same before the judges when she appeared before the Pakistan’s supreme court in March, however her cries fall on deaf ears as she was repeatedly sent in the police custody and shelter home where she was subjected to violence to change her statement.
Her case was an exception, as it gained a lot of attention in the media even in the international one which also led to a few congressmen of the USA to write a letter to the then Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari. At one point during the hearing in supreme court, Rinkle even screamed in front of the media that she wanted to go to her parents and she was forcibly converted. She also asserted that if you want to kill me do it now but don’t send me the so-called shelter home.
However despite her open confession, the outrage among the Hindus community, debates about her case in international media, it all fell flat before the judges of the so-called republic of Pakistan. Who adjourned the hearing for another three weeks and gave time to the perpetrators to torture Rinkle and changed her mind before she next appear in the court.
Rinkle was finally sent with her abductors by the supreme court when she next appeared before the court in April. She has been untraceable since 2013, probably held in strict captivity as a slave or killed. Her last appeal to her parents was to migrate to India so that she can kill herself. The verdict in the Rinkle’s case was heavily symbolic as It also decided the fate of thousands of Hindu girls simoltoneously who are kidnapped, raped, converted in Sindh province of Pakistan every year.
A decade later, a video of a similar incident has been doing the rounds on the internet in which another Hindu girl identified as Rajeeta Koliar can be seen screaming, crying after a Pakistani court ordered her to be taken away from her parents after her abduction. According to the details the girl was abducted by an Islamist, forcefully converted and married. However, somehow the girl managed to escape from the captivity, though despite that the girl wanted to go back to her parents the Pakistani court has ordered the girl to be shifted to the shelter home.
Hindu girl crying coz Pak court has ordered her to be taken away from parents. Why? Coz her abductors have converted her to Islam and since Islam is 'most peaceful & perfect religion', she can't 'leave' it.
This is the faith we are asked to respect.pic.twitter.com/PAzKne6a2Y
— Pakistan Untold (@pakistan_untold) October 17, 2023
In the viral video of the incident the girl can be seen in a devastating state screaming, crying and fearing what will unfold with her in the so-called shelter home. This has been the story of thousands of minority Hindu girls living in the Islamic republic of Pakistan over the years as a large number of them, mostly belonging to the marginalized section, are kidnapped at gunpoint by the Islamist and later tortured, pressurized for days either in the captivity of their perpetrators or in the shelter home until they succumb to the pressure and accept their new Islamic identity.
The incident was followed by abduction of a thirteen year old minor Hindu girl from Sindh by Tharoo Khaskeli and Tando Mohammad Khan. In the video pertaining to the incident a devastated mother of the victim girl Radha can be seen begging for the return of the girl.
13 yrs Hindu child Radha abducted in Pak. In 2 days, she'll be produced in court with fake certificates of 18 yrs age, conversion & Nikah. Court will ask her to go with abductors coz Islam is best. Hindu Mother's tears will pay price of Islam's 'greatness'pic.twitter.com/Cd6C1HYcjT
— Pakistan Untold (@pakistan_untold) October 18, 2023
It is to be noted that the Sindh province of Pakistan has a significant population of Hindus in Umerkot, Ghotki Mirpur khas and adjoining areas from where rampant kidnapping and forced conversions of minority Hindu girls has come to the fore repeatedly.
(Read the report for some recent incident till August)
The region has the notorious Mian Mithoo famed Bharchundi Sharif Shufi Shrine in Ghotki, an alleged power center for carrying out organised abduction and forced conversion of minority Hindu girls of adjoining areas. Another Sufi Shrine Pir Ayub Jan Sarhandi in Samarao has also been alleged for promoting organised crimes against the minority Hindu girls and their conversion.
It is estimated by some rights groups that around at least 1000 Hindu girls have been abducted and forcefully converted to Islam after being tortured and exploited by their abductors. However Hindu groups and their leaders in Pakistan feared that the actual number pertaining to abduction and assault on Hindu girls is even higher given the fact that most of the victims are from the poor marginalized section of the society and many cases go unreported.
The Pakistani government on the other hand who otherwise has championed itself in the propaganda pertaining to human rights of Muslims (majority) in Jammu and Kashmir has done little to the cause of safeguarding their own minorities especially the organised crimes against the minority Hindu girls in Sindh.
Modus operandi of the Islamists against Hindu minor girls
The alarming rate at which the minority Hindu girls are being kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam suggests that a bigger conspiracy is at play in the Sindh province. Additionally, mere case studies of a handful of fateful incidents occurred in the region can unmask the pattern in which these girls are converted and are forcibly enslaved.
It is vivid from the pattern that after identifying the victim, the powerful landlords or the groups promoted by radicals like Mian Mithoo forcibly abduct the victims at gunpoint or any other forcible means. After the abduction, the victim is subjected to sexual exploitation and mental torture by the accused following which they are forced to sign the copy of Nikaahnama.
Once the Nikahnama is signed the victim becomes a legal wife of one of her abductors, as the very law shields the perpetrator from being tried before the law even if the victim Hindu girl is a minor prior to her conversion in captivity. Further, in case if the victim’s family approaches the police and pressure is exerted on the police to catch the culprits, the girls even after they are recovered are sent to shelters home instead of their parents.
The girl staying at the government owned shelter home provides another opportunity for her powerful perpetrators to further pressurize the victim to accept her fate with her new identity, sometimes the girl is also threatened to face dire consequences if she refuses to cooperate. Such girls are threatened that other members of her family could also be harmed.
Abducted, raped and mentally exhausted by the unbearable torture the victim sometimes accepts the her fate and informes the concerned magistrate about her willingness to stay with her exploiter cum husband under her newly given Islamic identity. Those who resist the torture and intend to fightback are sent to back to stay at the shelter home. These girls either break down at some point of time like Rinkle or they return to her parents if she is fortunate enough to get in the rare category.
To conclude, it shall not be an exaggeration to say that from Rinkle to Ranjita, the Hindu minority girls of Pakistan are under severe threat posed by the radical Islamist who abducts, torture and convert them at their will while the defenders of the so-called democracy on the other side of the borders and elsewhere in the world watches it as mute spectators. Undoubtedly the screaming of these Hindu girls falls on their deaf ears every other day.
(Note : – Details mentioned in the article are extracted from various social media handles including of human right activists of Pakistan)
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