Communal disharmony

What is important right now is to ensure that Hindus across Sindh are able to follow their beliefs without any fear.

The harmony in which the Hindu and Muslim communities in Tharparkar have lived for decades was shattered as the Faqir Par Braham’s ashram in the village of Verhijhap, in Diplo taluka, was broken into by vandals who took away and damaged sacred items. The outraged Hindu community has staged protests and demanded justice. Their sense of anger is compounded by the fact that over the past few weeks, there have been multiple incidents of violence against places of worship belonging to the minority group. The worst incident took place in Larkana in the middle of March, when following a charge of blasphemy a mob broke into a temple complex and a dharamshala, breaking figures of deities and other holy items. Since then, there have been attacks on temples in Badin and Hyderabad.

The fact that this violence is spreading across Sindh, where the majority of Pakistan’s miniscule Hindu population lives, is terrifying. The community has already been facing growing harassment, with complaints of abductions, forced conversions of girls and other forms of victimisation becoming more and more common over the past decade. This spate of attacks on temples, reaching even into the communal calm of Thar, can only worsen matters and add to feelings of fear and distrust. This, of course, is the last thing we need in a country already torn apart by bigotry and hatred.

We wonder if official attitudes add to the problem. The Supreme Court has recently taken notice of the threat posed to a 150-year-old Hindu temple in Karachi by road construction works and the indifference of authorities to this. Perhaps, such actions play a part in determining mindsets. But what is most important right now is to find a means to create a greater sense of security for Hindus across Sindh and ensure they are able to follow their beliefs without fear of violence in any form or a breakdown of the harmony that parts of Sindh have always known. An end to this would be tragic.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2014.

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