Minorities being targeted: Baloch Hindus threaten to migrate from Pakistan

Demand immediate recovery of top spiritual leader abducted last week.

QUETTA: Balochistan’s Hindu community has warned that it will migrate to other countries if their top spiritual leader is not recovered immediately.

Maharaj Luckmi Chand Garji, who has been a top Hindu spiritual leader for six decades, was abducted on his way from Kalat to Khuzdar last week.

Addressing a news conference at the Quetta Press Club on Friday, Hindu leaders Muki Raday Sham, Tara Chand Dombki and others expressed serious concern over increasing kidnappings for ransom.

“The incidents of kidnapping Hindus has increased recently. The kidnappers didn’t even spare our 82-year-old spiritual leader. This has deeply shaken the entire community,” Raday Sham said, adding that Hindus are considered the most vulnerable and easy targets to be held hostage for ransom.

They said that assaulting the members of the weaker Hindu community was against Baloch tribal traditions. “We have been living with Baloch nawabs and sardars for several centuries but now, a sense of insecurity is widespread among the Hindu community,” the leader said.

The leaders called upon the governor and chief minister of Balochistan to intervene for the immediate and safe recovery of Maharaj Garji and others who are still being held captive.

Responding to a query, Raday Sham said that many Hindu families had migrated to other countries and if the abductions were not checked, the remaining people would also migrate. “It will not bode well for the traditional hospitality the Baloch people,” he said.

Meanwhile, Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani took serious note of the increasing kidnappings in the province and asked the authorities to arrest the culprits.

He was speaking in Kalat during a meeting with a delegation of the Hindu community, led by provincial minorities minister Basant Lal Ghulshan.

Raisani asked the police and other law enforcement agencies to take strict action against the culprits. He said that the provincial government is preparing a comprehensive strategy to secure the RCD highway, where most kidnappings take place.

“The Hindu people are an integral part of Balochistan and the government will provide them complete protection,” Raisani said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 8^th, 2011.