Bheel, who died last week, was buried in Haji Faqeer graveyard in Pangrio. PHOTO: FILE
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 11th, 2013.
COMMENTS (25)
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Pity! tragic! inhuman! Let's make the cuprits stand before the law. Let's punish them today to stop the humiliation of human and all religions. Today and far good! We demand strongest possible measures from the PPP govt.
Do ypu so called muslims know that these Hindus are the original owners of this land Most of you are from afghan and Arab countries if not converts
What a shame. There are no words strong enough to condemn such atrocities at the name of religion and under religious leaders. I distinctly remember reading an article in ET not too long ago where it was mentioned how even Hindus were not allowed to cremate and forced to bury their loved ones. To those who want to ignore the basic issue of desecration of dead bodies and divert it to the customs of Hindus. An example would suffice the point. Christians bury their dead like Muslims. However not being fundamentalist Catholic Church has allowed cremation a few decades ago. It is none of our business how people deal with their loved ones after death. All we have to show is some respect and humanity. Is that asking too much from the land of pure?
@ Iqbal The report states christians having highest crimes rates. The problem with apologists like you is that they would always drag the old 7th century mantra. Confused is the word. If you have troubles finding a job and want to change your religion, it is upto you.
Be the change you want to see. No one is stopping you from climbing the corporate ladder and changing ppl's perspective or atleast trying to.
The deceased was a creation of the Rab ul Alameen and to Him has he returned. The zealots have not let the remains in peace as if they own the land and not the Rab ul Alameen.
Now everyone would have understood my comments on Christian Cook. You won't see any of those who denied what I wrote. You will see counter accusations, even here you see from @A7san. What you won't see is the likes of @antanu who would be supporting these acts and claim to be a scholar of religion. He would only criticize some moderate muslims who oppose these acts and question them on their muslim names. Even Pakistani muslim living for decades in Kansas, USA would go for counter accusation only not realizing that counter accusation is in itself confirmation of the accusation made on them. No harm in counter accusation if it condemns his own practices also as it would correct evil everywhere. But you will not see it. Pakistani muslims (not muslims of any other country and that too sunni muslims of Pakistan only) have a fascination for dead bodies. We saw no action when hazaras were massacred and they had to sit for over a week with the dead bodies of their beloved ones. Ahmedi graves are desecrated regularly. We read few reports on even raping dead bodies. As I had said many times before that most of the Pakistani sunni muslims would never investigate NADRA records of hindu girls who were raped and converted. See what Nijam Sethi says on this short 5 min. video. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LI3ZmFGXrY Yes, there were some Pakistani muslims who have addressed what I said there and replied with honesty. I appreciate them and would welcome them to comment here also. But those are not even 10% of the Pakistani muslims. Those who did not like my comment there will or course be silent here. Would Bilal Bhutto ask for examination of NADRA records of hindu girls. I doubt it. We saw what happened to Chandio Commission. When families allow rape of young hindu girls right within their homes and have been doing so for over six decades , can anything good ever happen in Pakistan? Sooner or later we will see dead bodies of Christians and Shias being pulled out of their graves. Imran Khan will keep quiet. I would also like to bring a contrast here between MQM and others and why Indians and many outside Pakistan like them more than others. About a month or two back, I wrote a comment expressing my disappointment on MQM when they were silent on an incident of victimization of Ahmedis. Two MQM supporters, Aysha M and Mrs. Ahmed replied agreeing their own disappointment also. One replied two or three days later. It only showed me that they had been thinking seriously and were waiting for MQM's response. They did not forget nor did they think others will forget if they keep silent and were also equally disappointed. Though MQM may have its own compulsions and are facing other issues also, they still wanted their party to condemn. Those are the persons with real heart. MQM may have done many things wrong, but they are far better than anyone else.
@A7san: People of African race have the highest crime rate in the UK I don't understand why you are dragging skin colour into this debate. The debate here is which religion has the highest crime record? In UK, where laws are equal for all, the statistics prove that Muslims have the highest crime record and Hindus have the lowest. Read the statistics again and the proof is there. Once again, ask yourself why we are failing? The fact is that we are still following 7th century ideology whereas rest of the world has moved on. Some of us are stuck with our ancient beliefs and there is no way out. In education we are at the bottom of the league due to brainwashing on the new generations by the old. These young people when they get old they do the same to their young and hence there is no progress. It is like a dog chasing it's own tail. Hindus who have left India have done so well in their new adopted land that they have also overtaken the local whites. They have become the new economic masters. In UK, Hindus are the highest tax payers followed by Jews. At the bottom of the ladder are the Muslims who are depended on welfare state. I have no shame in confessing that I wish I was a Hindu. In UK or USA you have a higher chance of getting a job if you were one. For once, do your own research and draw your conclusions and stop drawing India into this debate. We need to clean our own house first and then drag others.
@Iqbal
People of African race have the highest crime rate in the UK. As for the bigots, there is no shortage of them in the UK. But just because of BNP, I can't generalize.
I mentioned Malaysia and Dubai in terms of modern outlook, (religious) moderation and wealth.
As for Muslims being labelled as "terrorists", I would blame the biased media and extremist elements in the society, both religious and liberal extremists. As for the ongoing "war", only time will tell whosoever succeeds.
If you read about India on the Human rights watch webpage, you will see that they don't have a great record either. As you put it, two wrongs don't make a right, but I like being impartial!
this is really unfortunate that even in death one doesn't have peace it may be a Hindu or a Ahmedi who gives these self-righteous group to judge a person of which religion should have a place in grave I hope that justice is served to the bereaved family of deceased.
@Chin2:
Sir You are mistaken in your assumptions. It has nothing to do with upper or lower caste issues. In Sindh Bhel and other adivasis bury their dead due to tribal customs and beliefs. By the way in Sindh there has never been any upper or lower caste issues and troubles.
@Khan:
Some castes of Hindus in Sindh,Pakistan who are actually adivasis do bury their dead as per their tribal custom.
@Informer:
Some classes of Hindu Adivasis in Sindh ,Pakistan bury their dead since time immemorial. Its their custom.
@Khan: They are not permitted to cremate as it is against Islam and they are not permitted to bury either because they are not Muslims.such is the fate of minorities in the land of the pure.The least the government can do is to assist minorities ie Hindus specifically to go to other lands to lead a life of honour and dignity.
I cant understand that , being a Hindu, who buried his body. All the 4 castes of Hinduism burn their bodies. Which caste did he being to. Who did the final rites before burying his body in the Muslim graveyard . Lets investigate that for starters. Something looks amiss here .
Bheels and many other dalit hindus at the bottom of the Indian caste system started burying their dead when they weren't allowed to cremate in upper caste crematoriums in many villages and had no other options to bury their dead in wilderness due to unavailability of low caste crematoriums or inability to buy woods for the pyre. The practices continued even after these dalits moved to cities, not because they were being discriminated like past but because thats what their forefathers have been doing.
I feel so sorry to hear that the bheels of today are facing the same discrimination they faced years ago but this time from Muslims.
I will pray for well being & good future for my bheel brothers.
@A7san: I live in UK and have access to uncensored reports of places you have just mentioned. In the case of Malaysia and Dubai you may want to read these two independent reports: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2013/07/25/get-rid-of-the-religious-bigots/ and http://www.hrw.org/world-report/2013/country-chapters/united-arab-emirates In a nutshell it is the religious bigotry which is in question. In the West there are widely available prison statistics by religion. In UK, the people who have the highest crime rate is among the Muslims and believe it or not the lowest crime rate is among the Hindus as shown on page 11 of this report: www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/sn04334. No point in dragging what is happening in the neighbouring countries. Remember, two wrongs don't make a right. Also, the West has now increased their intake of Hindu immigrants due to this very reason. We are now dubbed as "terrorists" and if you have not noticed there is a new Cold War going on. It's called Islam War. I will keep it to myself who will win in the end.
@Rajnesh Look in your own backyard before commenting here. You guys are just as extreme as Pak. Muzzafarnagar incident is just an example of what's brewing in India.
@Iqbal Have you heard about Malaysia or Dubai. I am sure Muslims living there would disagree with you.
@Rajnesh: Nothing will happen to those culprits – Its their country man. I agree. The fault lies in the teachings of our religion. No one would dare to question the culprits because they will drag Islam into the debate. And it ends there.
Little wonder that ex President Musharaf famously said of the muslims: "Today we are the poorest, the most illiterate, the most backward, the most unhealthy, the most un-enlightened, the most deprived, and the weakest of all the human race" At least he realised that 60 odd years too late. At time of partition the West warned of these type of atrocities and how right they were. It is also happening in other parts of Islamic World. Is this a safe way to say we have failed? ET - please publish this and let readers prove I am wrong.
@Khan: Hindus are not monolithic like Muslims . Even some Hindus eat beef and all most all go to Sufi darbars . We accept pluralism.
The country is no longer fit for humans Shame in indian leaders to agree partition that gave a land to extremists who are no more muslims than wild people ONLY SOLUTION IS OCCUPATION OF PAKISTAN BY INTERNATIONAL FORCES FOR A FEW HUNDRED YERAS TILL PEOPLE LEARN HUMANITY
Nothing will happen to those culprits - Its their country man.
@Khan: "Hindus cremate their dead…they don’t bury their dead ones…When did they start burying their bodies…"
I also thought so until I few years ago when I saw a graveyard marked "Hindu burial grounds" in Bangalore India, actually right next to another Cemetery. Apparently, some cases Hindus do bury their dead.
The point is not that. Point is that someone dug up a corpse and dragged it down in rope and police did nothing about it.
I have to agree with another commenter, I feel sorry for those who did this, rather than anger. It is the height of ignorance and hatred on the name of religion.
The fire of hatred will end up burning those holding it, rather any intended targets, eventually. ..Sad
Soul is gone , these idiots are beating the cloths. But this incident shows the level of the people. They are behind the world by a century in terms of civilization, human development, level of spirituality and scientific outlook.
What more can you do but pity these people and feel bad for the minorities in this unfortunate land.
It's sad , so much violence and hate in this world . Everybody is born equal , what makes difference is in which family one is born and from there on one assumes new identity in form of religion , sect , caste or creed but everybody's got one color of blood . Only one thing can save this world , study and study more and read literature and thoughts from all parts of the world . Live and let others live peacefully . Don't bring out religion in public it should be very private thing .