No security: Three Hindus kidnapped during the last 48 hours

Minorities’ rights organisations have warned of a shutter-down strike if victims are not rescued within two days.

SUKKUR: The Hindu Naujawan Ittehad and Kandhkot Samaji Ittehad have threatened to shut down the city if police fail to rescue the three Hindus who were kidnapped from Kandhkot during the last 48 hours.

On Thursday evening, MK* and RK*, both residents of Nanik Muhalla, had gone to the Irrigation Bungalow for their evening walk. When they did not return home, their relatives started searching for them but to no avail. Later, they reported the incident to the police, who claim to be investigating the incident.

Another Hindu youth, JR*, was kidnapped by assailants near Karampur Laro, within the jurisdiction of Naparkot police in Shikarpur on Friday night. The youth was in a wagon on the way back to Kandhkot, after paying a visit to Shahbaz Qalandar’s shrine. When the wagon reached near Karampur Laro, a group of assailants intercepted the vehicle and after identifying the victim, took him hostage and fled.

The president of the Hindu Naujawan Ittehad, Kandhkot, the Kashmore-Kandhkot district president of Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (minority wing) Santosh Kumar Agarwal and Kandhkot Samaji Ittehad president Raja Baboo Esani, condemned the kidnappings and demanded the police to rescue the victims within 48 hours. They warned of a shutter-down throughout the district if the police failed to rescue the victims.

Santosh Agarwal said that both MK and RK used to frequent the Irrigation Bungalow for evening walks. Quoting eyewitnesses at the Irrigation Bungalow, he claimed that they were taken away by two persons in a white Mehran car, bearing a police registration plate. Agarwal claimed that the two victims belonged to poor families. RK was an employee of a mobile phone company while MK used to work in the grain market. JR was an employee of a beverage company and was a close relative of former Sindh minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla. He added that as the district president of the minority wing of Kashmore-Kandhkot, he had contacted the secretary of the President of Pakistan and apprised him about the kidnapping of three Hindu men.

He went on to claim that when he had met the Kashmore SSP Umer Tufail, the officer had claimed that RK and MK had not been kidnapped. Rather, they had gone missing and the police was trying to find them. When the SSP was contacted for his version, his personal staff officer Farid Ahmed Memon said that the official was busy in a meeting. He, however, maintained that both RK and MK had not been kidnapped as their families had not received a ransom call yet. He added that they had simply gone missing and that the police was trying to locate them. Memon admitted, however, that JR had been kidnapped from the limits of Shikarpur district.

More than 10 Hindus have been kidnapped from Upper Sindh, particularly from Kashmore-Kandhkot, Shikarpur and Ghotki districts during the last six months. Of the 10 victims, four were kidnapped from Kandhkot alone. Two of them were rescued while the other two have been kidnapped during the last 48 hours. From Shikarpur, four Hindus were kidnapped, of whom three have been rescued while the fourth was kidnapped on Friday night. From Ghotki district, two grade 10 students were kidnapped from Qadirpur, who were later rescued.

*Names have been witheld to protect identities

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2014.