Hindu Panchayat wants community to stand united

Speakers at a meeting condemned the government for not safeguarding their rights.

SUKKUR:

It is time for the Hindu community to cast aside its political affiliations and unite for its rights, said speakers at a meeting of the Hindu Panchayat, held in Gao Shala, Sukkur on Sunday.

The speakers added that if they cannot to do so, then they should put their heads down and brave atrocities such as forced conversions, kidnappings for ransom, robberies and, above all, attacks on temples and the desecration of their holy books.

The speakers, highlighting the atrocities that Hindus are subjected to in Sindh, and said that the men were being kidnapped for ransom, traders were being robbed and women were being married and forcibly converted. However, they did blame the government for failing in its responsibility to protect minorities and claimed that the chief minister of Sindh, Qaim Ali Shah, had failed to meet them when they wanted to discuss their grievances with him.



Speaking on the occasion, Larkana Hindu Panchayat chairperson Kalapna Devi condemned the atrocities against Hindu community. “We are the sons of this soil as we have been living in Sindh for centuries,” she said. “We hold meetings and conventions and pass resolutions but when it comes to being united, we part ways in the name of party politics. We are human beings first.”

Devi then said that she will continue to raise her voice against injustice, regardless of the consequences. “I am proud to be a Sindhiyani and a Hindu. I have been threatened many times but I am not afraid to die since that is bound to happen. However, I will not die silent.”

She praised the people of Sindh and claimed that most of them try to protect her even in the face of adversity.

Other speakers at the event also spoke of the importance of interfaith harmony.

“Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai talked not only of Muslims but rather of humanity,” said Shah Latif Foundation general-secretary Syed Waqar Hussain Shah. “He prayed for the development and prosperity of Sindh and also for the development and prosperity of the entire universe.”

He added that the idea of a global village was a brainchild of Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai and the UN charter is based on his preachings.

Hindu Panchayat Sukkur president Mukhi Eshwar Lal Makheja thanked Shah for travelling to Sukkur in the hot weather to express his solidarity with the community and added that office bearers of various Hindu Panchayats of Sindh will converge at Bhit Shah on June 21.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2014.