Ronik Sharma
The situation of Pakistan’s religious minorities has remained unchanged for decades. Over the years, Pakistan’s various administrations have consistently refuted the existence of forced marriages and conversions.However, on ground the reality is that minorities’ circumstances are getting worse every day.Minorities are now finding it more difficult to fight for their rights, dignity, and identity, which has made the situation horrifyingly worse. Pakistan has also been included to the list of “countries of particular concern” by the United States for violating religious freedom. Pakistan, though, continues to act out.The current Pakistani administration may think that, like earlier administrations, they are making enough progress, but the reality is rather different.The abduction, forced conversion, and marriage of non-Muslim girls are some of the most urgent human rights issues in Pakistan today.The atrocities done against Pakistan’s minority Hindu community during this time have not yet come to an end. No matter how much Pakistan attempts to modify its worldwide reputation, but the world is aware of the truth. It seems that an episode involving atrocities committed against a Hindu girl from Sindh has once again come to light, according to news reports from Pakistan.
Media reports claim that a Hindu girl in Pakistan’s Sindh province was first kidnapped and then married to a Muslim youngster. The victim’s family has been praying for their daughter’s recovery ever since the incident with the President and the local government. In addition, there was a significant protest against this occurrence organised by the Hindu population of Sindh province. The victim’s family and other members of the Hindu community have organised a large-scale protest by closing stores and blocking roads because they are upset about the lack of assistance from the government authorities. As per the recent incident, the victim’s name is Kareena, according to a story in the media reports. A week ago, the victim was purportedly kidnapped from Unnar Mohalla in Qazi Ahmed Town of Dadu by Islamic terrorists.The Hindu community is calling for the girl’s return as soon as possible, according to a story as per the media reports.
After the recent incident demonstrations by Hindus in Nawabshah demonstrated in front of the Zardari House over the latest event. Also marching on the major roadways were angry people. Asif Ali Zardari, a former president, was called upon to intervene in order to help in the retrieval of the girl while the demonstrators chanted anti-police and Government slogans. However, the Government offers no support in any kind. Several human rights organisations in the nation have harshly criticised this act.The girls are typically abducted by friends, family members, or men looking for wives. When this happens, the authorities frequently turn a blind eye while the children are sometimes seized by wealthy landlords as restitution for unpaid debts owed by their farmworker parents. As soon as they are converted, the girls are promptly married off, either to older men or to the men who kidnapped them, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Child protection activists also claims that forced conversions are allowed to flourish unchecked by corrupt local police force that supports the offenders by failing to investigate or obstructing investigations, Islamic clerics who solemnise the marriages, judges who approve the unions, and Islamic clerics who perform the forced conversions.
The United Nations human rights commissions need to wake up and exert pressure on the current Pakistani Government to put an end to all such heinous activities, such as coerced marriages and conversions of Hindu minority. The UN Human Rights Commission’s effectiveness, efficacy, and functioning are all called into question if the Pakistani government is brazenly violating the human rights of Hindu minority in front of a global human rights body.
(The author is an Advocate J&K)
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