Anushka Pathak, Mumbai Uncensored, 22nd March 2022:
In another attack against the minority Hindu community in Pakistan, an 18-year-old girl named Pooja Kumari Oad has been shot dead in Rohri, Sukkur, which comes in the Sindh province of Pakistan after the attackers failed in their attempt to kidnap her.
According to Pakistani reporter Naila Inayat, the attacker Wahid Lashari tried to abduct Pooja and shot her dead when she resisted the attempt.
The People’s Commission for Minorities Rights and the Center for Social Justice, in a statement, said, the attackers first tried to kidnap Pooja on the road and when she protested, they shot her in the middle of the street. Every year women belonging to minority communities, especially in Sindh, are abducted and forcibly converted by religious extremists.
Hindus are a minority in the Islamic nation of Pakistan. Hate crimes, especially against women, take place in the form of abductions, rapes, forced conversions and marriages, and murder. According to the People’s Commission for Minorities’ Rights and the Center for Social Justice, 156 incidents of forced conversions took place between 2013 and 2019, it said.
A bill criminalizing forced conversions was introduced in Pakistan in 2019. However, due to strong protests and demonstrations, the law could not be enacted. As a result, even today, the painful process of “change your religion or die” continues and the minorities have to face the repercussions.
Pakistan’s civil society does not seem to care for the sufferings of the Hindu families whose daughters are abducted, forcibly converted, and married off to older Muslim men. Most Hindu families live in poverty and hence cannot afford legal services.
A field investigation report by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in 2019 has reiterated a harsh reality that was already known for far too long—minorities in Pakistan live under constant fear of persecution as the criminals enjoy support from the influential section of the society, fundings from political leaders and protection from the court. In a lot of cases, the courts have empowered the culprits responsible for abducting and forcibly converting the Hindu and Christian minorities.
For this particular reason, the Citizenship Amendment Act alias CAA was passed in India in December 2019 for providing citizenship to persecuted religious minorities like Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. Although its implementation has not started yet, it comes as a ray of hope for the minorities. The law does not provide citizenship to Muslims as the countries have a majority population of Muslims who enjoy all the rights and powers given to them by their respective governments.
India saw a nationwide protest against the CAA law, especially in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, stating the law discriminates on the basis of an individual’s religion. The aftermath of the protests was horrible as clashes broke out between the Hindu and Muslim communities and a number of people lost their lives including Head Constable Ratan Lal and IB officer Ankit Sharma. Ten people including Aam Aadmi Party’s councilor Tahir Hussain were arrested for the deep-rooted conspiracy and murder. The police investigation had also revealed that Tahir Hussain played a key role in the Delhi riots of February 2020.
