By
Express News Service - NEW DELHI
Published: 11th December 2013 07:32 AM
Last Updated: 11th December 2013 07:32 AM
Over a hundred Hindu refugees from Pakistan held a protest outside
the office of United Nations (UN) here on the occasion of International
Human Rights Day.
They submitted a memorandum addressed to UN
Secretary General Ban-ki-Moon at the United Nations information centre
demanding Indian citizenship to refugees. Protestors said that
para-military religious terrorist outfits in Sindh have been harassing
and terrorising Hindus.
The trail of harassment, murder,
abduction, kidnapping of girls and their forced conversion as well as
un-consensual marriages with the Muslims backed by the security
establishment.
Such a situation is resulting in a gradual exodus
of Sindhi Hindus from their historical and indigenous land - Sindh, and
the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, said Khemu Kalani (name changed), one
of the protestors who along with 114 other Hindus came from Sindh
province of Pakistan on a tourist visa to India via Rajasthan.
“These
crimes committed against Hindus fall in the category of crimes against
humanity and violation of various United Nations covenants, conventions,
treaties, resolutions and instruments, particularly of the Article II,
III, and IV of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the
Crime of Genocide,” said Swami Om of the Hindu Veer Sena, who was
accompanying the protestors.
Gomti, 39, could not hold back her
tears as she recalled tales of horror of young Hindu women being
abducted, raped and converted in Sindh province of Pakistan. She is
among the 750 Pakistani Hindu people who have fled Pakistan and come to
Delhi. Ganga, a 42 year old woman (name changed) said that she left
Sindh province of Pakistan and has come to Delhi with her husband and
their six children.
“We are called as kafir (or the non believer)
in Pakistan; our children are not allowed to study in schools unless
they convert to Islam and read the kalma. Wives of Hindu men are picked
up and raped.
“When we go to police station to register
complaints, the police drive us away saying rape is no big deal, has he
taken anything from you?,” said Gomti, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Nahar
Singh, a Delhiite who has given shelter to over 750 Pakistani Hindu
refugees who came to Delhi over the past 18 months said, “ All they want
is to live with respect and be allowed to stay as Hindus; the
Government of India should grant them citizenship.”
Nahar Singh
said that the refugee have already appealed to the President of India
and all major constitutional authorities in the country including the
Prime Minister, but in vain.
Nahar Singh added that thousands of
these victimised Hindus, as well as their human rights defenders have
sought refuge in India, where they no doubt face various legal,
economic, and social issues.
The Centre, which has to either
accept these refugees on the humanitarian grounds by recognising their
refugee status or confer them the citizenship of India, has not come
forth with any concrete decision.
