Hindu's body dug up: Local clerics, landlord withdraw support

Police insist they have formed teams to make arrests.

HYDERABAD: The political and social pressure in the case of late Bhuro Bheel's corpse desecration in Badin's Pangrio town seems to have worked out. The influential people, including the religious clerics, making the case for forgiving the people who disinterred Bheel's dead body from the grave, appear to be withdrawing.

Bheel, who died last week, was buried in Haji Faqeer graveyard in Pangrio. The enraged mob had dug out the body, dragged it after tying it with ropes and threw it in the open on Haji Masood Talpur's land five days ago.



"We have formed teams and we will make sure that the suspects nominated in the FIR are arrested," said Badin SSP Manzoor Khatian. Zafar Arain, Khamiso Laghari and Akbar Khoso, in addition to 17 unknown suspects, are nominated in the FIR registered by the deceased Bheel's brother, Khabarh. DSP Aslam Khanzada said police teams are raiding hideouts of the suspects but no arrest were made till Thursday evening.

According to sources privy to the matter, Pakistan Muslim League-Functional's Pir Hamid Shah Rashdi and Mir Zahid Hussain Talpur, Maulvi Mithan Sikandari, Qazi Abdul Basit and some clerics from Hyderabad were intervening on behalf of the accused men. However, all of them have backed out.

Condemnations and protests

The desecration of Bheel continues to draw condemnation and demands to punish the culprits. The Pakistan Peoples Party's chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also assured the family of strong action against the accused.

The minorities leader and former MNA, Krishan Chand Parwani, nationalist leaders from Sindh Taraqi Pasand, Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz, Qaumi Awami Tehreek and other parties condoled with the bereaved family on Thursday and assured them of their support.

Meanwhile in Karachi, NGOs, nationalist, political parties and groups of professionals staged a protest demonstration in front of the press club on Thursday. "Down with extremism," shouted the participants at the demonstration. They demanded the government order an impartial inquiry into the incident and provide protection to the scheduled caste Hindus across Sindh.

They pointed out that the local police were aware of the fact that a body was lying on the main road but they failed to take any steps to remove it. That sends a message to the religious minorities that they do not have any future in an Islamic country, the protesters said.

According to the participants, local clerics instigated the mob to dig out the body by repeating that a "non-Muslim was buried in a Muslim graveyard". It was seminary students from a nearby town, who came armed with weapons, to carry out the task, said one participant, adding that the body was lying under the sky for nearly eight hours before it could be retrieved by members of the Dalit community.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2013.