Worrying trend: Hindu trader abducted from Quetta

Members of his community stage protest.


Express November 05, 2011
Worrying trend: Hindu trader abducted from Quetta

QUETTA: Basant Lal, a paint shop owner, was on his way home to Saryab Road from Liaquat Bazaar on Friday, when a group of armed men intercepted him, shoved him into a vehicle and sped off.

An FIR was registered at the Saryab police station against unidentified persons.

“The police are investigating the matter and cannot comment on the motive behind the abduction,” said Saryab SHO Raja Qayyum. However, he added, it will be premature to term the case “kidnapping for ransom”.

In a separate incident the same day, armed men robbed several shops in Dadhar. Protesting against the spate of kidnappings and robberies targeting their community, Hindu traders observed a complete shutter-down strike in Dadhar, the district headquarters of Kechi District.

At least four Hindu traders have been kidnapped in the past 30 days, Balochistan Minorities Minister Basant Lal Gulshan told The Express Tribune, adding, “Hindu traders are soft targets and the criminals believe they are easy ransom targets.”

However, the government is trying to prevent similar occurrences in the future, he said.

Several Hindu traders were set free after they paid off ransom to their kidnappers.

A sub-engineer from the Hindu community was recently freed by his captors after his family members paid Rs600,000 in ransom. “The local administration and influential people of the province are patronising the kidnappers. I was in the captivity of kidnappers for over two weeks. The area wasn’t far from my hometown in Jaffarabad district,” he said.

The Hindu community is helpless before the influential people. “Almost all well-off Hindu traders are either kidnapped or are forced to pay extortion money.”

Asked whether any Hindu trader had been recovered by law enforcing agencies, Gulshan simply put up a ‘do-not-know’ front.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5th,  2011.

COMMENTS (21)

rehmat | 12 years ago | Reply

@Jack: "Pakistan is 97 per cent muslim – which means that the total number of minorities remaining are less than 6 million. India has 200 million minorities of which 150 million are Muslim. See the gap in logic?"

Pakistan has 97% Muslims today. In 1947 it had 25% non-Muslims. India had 9% Muslims in 1947. Now the percentage is 15%.

SO the gap that you have referred to arises from the fact that Pakistan tortured its non-Muslims either killing or forcibly converting them and India provided appropriate protection to its Muslim population. YEs the occassional communal riot does occur but the frequency and severity has reduced over a period of time.

As an Indian Muslim - of course I do not agree with the notion of swapping minority populations because I prefer to live in India where i have freedom of worship. In Pakistan that is denied to Ahmadis, Shias and even Barelvi Muslims whose worship places are frequent targets of suicide attacks.

But your emphasis on the 97% as a justification was troubling - especially since that number would have been 75% if the ninorities had ot been treated poorly.

This ongoing poor treatment of Hindus in Pakistan gives extremist Hindus in India the lever to fan anti-Muslim sentiment. So if Muslims in Pakistan truly believe in helping theirumah, they should stop illtreating because f the impact it can have on Muslims in India.

A MEMEBER OF SOFT COMMUNITY | 12 years ago | Reply

This is very critical situation for hindu community of balochistan.this practice is continuously incresing day by day,but our govt.is not getting any action against those groups who are involved.

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