Forced conversion of Hindu girls on the rise: Pak Hindu Council

The head of the Pakistan Hindu Council Dr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, Member National Assembly has condemned the rise in

kidnapping of Hindu girls, forced conversion and marriage.

Talking to the media outside Parliament House on Tuesday he referred to the recent kidnapping of a Hindu woman, Lucky Bhel from Sindh who was reportedly forced to marry a follower of a local religious leader.

“Another Hindu teacher, Sapna Rani, from Peshawar was recovered after 15 days with the active support of media and civil society,” he said.

Dr. Ramesh Kumar said that the founder of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had promised minorities their rights and the Constitution of Pakistan also guaranteed their protection. He pledged support for the victims’ families and said he would raise the issue on every available forum including Parliament and take up the grievances of the Hindu community.

Earlier this year, the Sindh Government had set up a three member committee to examine a law to stop forced marriages of Hindu girls.

Activists in Karachi have said there are 20 such cases every month and last year the case of Rinkle Kumari went right upto the Supreme Court which allowed her and two other girls to decide their future.

Courtesy:thehindu dot com

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Pakistan: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari appoints ‘untouchable’ as adviser

Karachi: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, has appointed a Hindu ‘untouchable’ as his adviser, an unprecedented office for a low caste Hindu in this conservative society.

Surendar Vallasai, a former journalist, who later joined the media cell of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), was appointed as Bilawal’s adviser on minorities affairs.

The patron-in-chief of the PPP has appointed six other PPP activists as advisers who would brief the leader on their respective fields, while Valasai would keep the leader abreast on minorities issues in Pakistan.

“My appointment as adviser to the patron-in-chief came as a surprise to me as I had never expected such a huge responsibility,” Valasai said.

Pakistan lists 40 scheduled castes and tribes including Bheel, Bagri, Balmeke and Menghwar and its constitution guarantees equality among all citizens and disapproves any discrimination on the basis of caste, creed or religion.

However, the equality is not practised on the ground and minorities, especially the scheduled castes, face highly discriminatory behaviour.

Valasai, the son of a poor mason, had to quit his studies for a mass communication qualification midway and started working as proof reader for English daily Sindh Express in 1990. He later became a reporter at the newspaper.

After joining PPP Media Cell in 1997 at Bilawal House, Valasai worked closely with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and would update her on the news covered in Sindhi, Urdu and English newspapers.

Valasai said that Bilawal had a loving heart and mind for the weak and oppressed members of the society, especially minorities.

In Christmas wishes to the minority Christians in Pakistan, Bilawal tweeted: “I want to see a Christian PM [prime minister] in Pakistan in my lifetime.”

Pakistan’s constitution allows only a Muslim to hold the office of prime minister and president in the country.

Courtesy:newindianexpress dot com

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Abductor Tried to Forcibly Convert Me: Pak Hindu Woman

 

A Hindu woman school teacher, who was reported missing last month, has told a magistrate in this northwestern Pakistani city that her kidnapper tried to force her to convert her faith and marry him.

Sapna Rani, aged around 25, told Magistrate Mohammad Fayyaz Khan that her abductor kept her unconscious most of the time while she was in captivity, the Dawn daily reported today.

Khan directed police to conduct a medical examination of Rani and submit a report.

Rani was recovered from Khairpur area of Bahawalpur in Punjab province late on Saturday after police officer Shaheenullah Khan traced her through the cell-phone of her alleged captor, Zahid Nawaz.

Nawaz is a resident of Bahawalpur.

Rani had gone missing on December 21 while returning home from her school in Paharipura area of Peshawar. She told the magistrate that a car stopped near her and she fell unconscious when a person put a cloth doused with an anaesthetic on her face.

She said when she gained consciousness a day later, she saw a man later identified as Zahid Nawaz present in the room. She said whenever she gained consciousness, Nawaz would demand that she should marry him after converting to Islam.

She said on her refusal, Nawaz would put an anaesthetic-doused cloth on her face.

Rani said as she was unconscious most of the time, she was unsure whether she was sexually assaulted.

Police had registered a case after a complaint was lodged by her cousin, Suresh Kumar.

The kidnapping had created unrest among the Hindu community in Peshawar and its leaders appealed to authorities to recover the teacher.

Police said they made special efforts to trace the woman as her family was poor and passing through a lot of distres
courtesy:news dot outlookindia dot com

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‘Missing’ Hindu teacher recovered

Peshawar :06 January: A Hindu female teacher, who had gone missing from Gulshan Colony on the GT Road a few days ago, was recovered from Khairpur in Sindh province, the police said. Sapna Rani was recovered during a police action. A case was registered by the police after she went missing.The news.

courtesy:thenews dot com dot pk

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Lyari’s displaced Christians and Hindus want temporary abode

Saturday, January 04, 2014

Karachi
 
The Christian and Hindu families who had to leave Lyari’s Slaughter House area a few months ago fearing for their lives have demanded that the government should provide them with a temporary abode outside the troubled neighbourhood as they were scared of returning home.

In meeting with DIG South Abdul Khaliq Shaikh on Friday, the leaders of the communities said they “ready to live on the streets rather than going back to Lyari”.

“The DIG assured us that the police will provide full security in Slaughter House, but the families are not ready because criminal gangs are operating there with immunity,” said Peter Bernard, a Christian leader told The News.

“We have offered that the government should meet the families and talk directly with them,” said Mohan Lal Maheshwari, who represents the Hindus.

Around 550 Christian and Hindu families had left Slaughter House in October after the area’s gangsters killed three Christian men.

The leaders say that they understand that the police will provide them with security, but the problem is that the gangs rule the whole of Lyari.

“The police can provide security in and around the compound. But the men go to work and the children go to schools. They [the gangs] can hit them anywhere and anytime they want.”

The displaced families are living in the homes of their relatives in various Christian- and Hindu-majority areas in the city.

Many families are too poor to rent a house. It has already been over three months and they are living in their friends and relatives’ houses.

“The government should come forward with a solution, or else the families will be forced to live on the streets in the cold. They are too frightened to return. It’s always wise to choose life over unspeakable hardships,” said Bernard.
Courtesy:thenews dot com dot pk
 

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Voluntary service offered for Hindu temples

Not satisfied with maintenance and upkeep of ancient Hindu temples at Katasraj in Chakwal district, the All India Mahajan Jagaran Manch (AIMJM) has announced to perform karsewa (voluntary service) at these temples.
"They white wash, clean and put lights in the temples before arrival of Hindu jathas from India and lock them as we leave Katasraj," AIMJM President Manch Gulshan Mahajan told Indian reporters.
Mahajan had recently returned from Katasraj pilgrimage. Notably, many Hindu devotees had complained of poor maintenance of Hindu temples and installation of khandit (broken) idols of Hindu deities. A few had even said that they were told by Pak officials that they had kept the idols in a museum for their preservation.
He said the temples should be opened daily and permanent priest should be appointed to perform daily religious rituals. He informed that MJM would communicate with the concerned ministry for seeking permission for karsewa.
All India Hindu Shiv Sena President Surinder Kumar Billa said, "According to my information there are no idols in the temples and makeshift arrangements are made during visit of Hindu jathas from India."
He also said that there was a broken Shivalingmam in a temple close to Amar Kund, which was polluted by the effluents coming from a nearby cement factory.

Courtesy:pakistantoday dot com dot pk

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Khairpur Hindu traders threaten to move business to India

Thursday, December 19, 2013
From Print Edition

SUKKUR: Hindu traders in Khairpur have threatened to move their businesses to India if police did not stop their atrocities against them.

According to reports, local Hindu traders had been observing shutter down for last four days in Nara, Peerano Pattan, Choundiko and Sikandarabd against what they call the atrocities of Station House Officer Mansoor Nizamani.

They alleged they were tortured by the police when they refused to give extortion.

Representatives of traders Siri Chand and Kirshan Das said that police instead of providing them security demanding money. On their refusal, fake cases were registered against them, they added.

Courtesy:thenews dot com dot pk

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Pakistani Hindu Refugees Stage Demonstration outside UN Office on Rights Day

By Express News Service - NEW DELHI

Published: 11th December 2013 07:32 AM

Last Updated: 11th December 2013 07:32 AM

 

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  Former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot interacting with displaced Hindus from Pakistan, in Jodhpur| PTI

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.

Courtesy:newindianexpress dot com

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