At a press conference held by organisations working for the Hindu community, Hindu Panchayat Karachi Division president Amarnath Motumal said that women who were already married within the community and were pregnant were now being forced to convert and get married.
"It is unfortunate that this is now taking place and even they are not spared," said the lawyer, explaining that he was fighting one such case in the Sindh High Court where an expecting Hindu woman was converted and married off. "We have challenged this in court, as a marriage certificate was issued to her with a fake name."
Hindu activists such as Chander Kolhi of the Pakistan Hindu Seva said that according to their fact-finding mission, there have been 30 cases of violence against Hindu community in the past year. However, he pointed out that official data on forced conversions was not present.
Fact-finding
Kolhi went on to share experiences of their team working on issues of their community, and said that bonded labour was prevalent in Umerkot, Sanghar and Mirpurkhas districts. "The labourers live in harsh conditions. Their wives are taken away by their landlords," he said. He said that Hindu women were also being raped in rural Sindh.
Touching upon the attacks on Hindu temples in different parts of the province few months ago, he said that none of the culprits have been arrested.
Where is Rinkle Kumari?
Journalists questioning about the whereabouts of Rinkle Kumari, a Hindu girl whose conversion to Islam sparked protests and outcry in 2012, were given vague answers by the activists.
Motumal said that he had no idea where the girl was while the Pakistan Hindu Seva president Sanjesh S Dhanja said that he had heard that she was a teacher at a school. A journalist said that he had heard that she was living in Ghotki.
"We are not in touch with her and we don't know where she is," said Motumal.
Separate electorate
Referring to a non-minorities group's demand for separate electorate, the activists said that they were against it. "We are totally against a separate electorate. We support the current system of joint electorate. For joint system, we had struggled and appealed to Zia and Pervez Musharraf endlessly."
Motumal said that under the current system, they were recognised and identified as Pakistanis and as one nation
"Those who are demanding a separate electorate system are actually not thinking about the minorities community but of themselves only," he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 14th,2014.
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When mad militants attack, their bullets or bombs don't discriminate between Race, Region or Religion - the case is not just with the subcontinent but with any other place on this Earth.
It is not just Pakistan, Hindus all over subcontinent are suffering from same militants.
1) By breaking the promise of treating Minorities with respect of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah Pak has lost its Integrity as a Nation. 2) By targeting US embassies in Pakistan & elsewhere, by the Terrorists recruited, trained, equipped & armed it lost its trust. 3) Now it has become a threat to itself and is in the process of “Self-Destruction”! :(
Shame on these so called "Muslims" of "Islamic Republic of Pakistan", these people are worst than pre-Islam Arabs. May God save innocent people from this curse.