Author:
Publication: State of Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan
Date: 1999
""The Hindus remained under double
jeopardy ¡V from their not only being non-Muslim but also sharing
the religion with the Indian majority. During times of tensions with India
¡V as over Kargil during 1999 ¡V they became even more vulnerable.
The plight of the so-called scheduled castes adds a third jeopardy of extreme
poverty. A minority member of the parliament and parliament secretary,
Kishen Bheel, once told the National Assembly that the Hindus were being
looted wherever they were: in Sindh it was generally the dacoits, elsewhere
the police. If the government wanted to drive out Hindus, he said, it should
say so.
""Violations against temples In
Karachi, a tenant of a part of the 200-year-old Shri Punch Mukhi Hanuman
Mandir, Ghulam Rasool, got the piece leased in his name with his name with
the connivance of some KMC officials, and then started construction on
it. The pujari (priest) of the temple petitioned the court which ordered
an enquiry. In Mirpur, a fire was started in Darbar Guru Nanak Saheb Mandir
in Goth Garhi Chakar. The roof was burnt down, religious literature was
gutted Hindus put all shutters down and called off Holi celebrations.
In Lahore the official auqaf department
decided to convert Krishna mandir on Ravi Poad into a dispensary.(¡K)
When in reaction to the destuction of the Babri Masjid in India in 1992,
a large number of Hindu temples in Pakistan were sacked, the government
had promised to reconstruct and restore them. The historic Prahlad Temple
in Multan, amongst many others, still remain in debris.
Pg 127
""Violence against Hindus rarely
made even local newspaper headlines. Few of a dozen or so incidents that
occurred in the space of one-and-a-half months in July and August did.
On July 17, dacoits hijacked a bus with 56 passengers in the Guddu police
stations jurisdiction. A ransom was only demanded for the release of the
abducted Hindus ¡V a price of one million rupees was paid by their
family for their release.
On July 27th Nikal Chand, 18, assistant
at a medical store in Umerkot was kidnapped and killed. Two days laterin
Khaan city in Mirpurkhas a boy called Gagan Mingwar was raped by the factory
owner Latif Ramgar and then killed. Another boy, Ranjhan Oad was held in
Khaanji or Nijj Jail, a private jail of Haveli Arisar near Chhor in Umerkot.
He was released when the SDM raided the place on July 28th.
On July 29th, Bhiman Das Eidanman,
28, was murdered in Kandhkot, reportedly by dacoits. Mashau Kolhi, 16,
was raped before and after her marriage by her zamindar and kamdar in Deh
255, village Chonro Bhurgri near Digri. They also made pictures and video
cassettes of her without dress, and had her husband and father-in-law arrested
on false charges of possessing hashish.
Daanu Weenjholi was robbed of all
valuables in his home and then killed by dacoits who posed as policemen,
in Ghotki village in Nagar Parkar, on August 8. Ratri and her pregnant
daughter- in- law were raped in Qadir Bux Talpur village in Matli in Badin
in August 12th. Three armed men had entered the house and tied up the male
members.
Chanu Wishram, a farmer boy, was
kidnapped by armed men of a Digri feudal. On August 26th Pushpa, 45, a
widow, was robbed and murdered in her house in Naudero. Two days later,
Teekarn Das, a business man, was kidnapped for ransom near Kandhra, in
Sukkur. Raju, an intermediate student kidnapped with four others while
worshipping in a Mandir in Pir-jo-Goth, was killed for the demanded ransom
not being paid for him. Jaivan, 10, was kidnapped, raped and killed in
Kunri. Early in August minority MPA from Sukkur, Mehru Mal Jagwani, said
that in addition to these four Hindus picked up from Pir-jo-Goth, four
months earlier, three Hindus had been abducted from each of Kashmore and
Sanghar. They were all missing and fear had gripped all Hindus. Three
of them were later reported to have been released on a ransom of Rs, 1
million.
There were no reports of serious
pursuit of such cases by the police or of any redress provided to the victims.
Pg 128
""The Kargil crisis fuelled anti-Hindu
suspicions. A word was once spread that Indian agents were looses in the
border areas of fairly high minority-concentration, such as Bahawalpur
and Rahimyar Khan.
In July, four Hindus of Sindh, Sajan,
Qaisariya, Rura Ram and Gekha, came to Islamabad to obtain visas for India
and stayed in a temple. The CIA rounded them from there claiming suspicion
of their being spies. After prolonged interrogation, and after extorting
heavy bribes, it released them late in the night. Earlier in the same month,
(Pakistani) Intelligence services were reported from Dharki to have sent
a report claiming ¡¥anti-state activities¡¦ relating
to Kargil against 200 Hindus of Sukkur and 28 of Gotkhi. Including several
businessmen.
A constitutional petition was filed
in the Supreme High Court against Hindu judge, Justice Rana Bhagwandas,
arguing that a non-Muslim could not be a member of superior judiciary in
an Islamic republic. The petition was referred to a full bench. The judgemnet
was still reserves wgen the judge, who was in fact next in line to be the
chief justice of the Supreme High Court, was transferred to the Supreme
Court.
""Kavita, daughter of a cloth mercahnt
of Jacobabad, Ghanumaf, was kidnapped, converted, then married to a Muslim,
Jusuf Rajput. She was brought out in a procession to the court and made
to read out a statement that she was in love with Yusuf and had converted
to his faith. There was no effort by the court to ascertain her independent
will, or circumstances of her initial abduction.
"Triumph of love," chanted an ecstatic
crowd showering rose petals on the couple. "Where was this devotion to
love just four or five months ago," asked Hindu Dr. Heera Lal Lohano, an
anguished but devout Pakistani citizen, "when a Muslim girl, Shabana Mahar,
had fallen in love with a final year Hindu MBBS student of Chandka Medical
College, Pawan Kumar. The boy and girl were both killed (¡K) and
disappeared without a trace.
