HINDUs IN pak

 

By : Hemant Mahajan      On: May 02, 2012	191 Visits	Comments (1) Add Comment
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On March 26, 19-year-old Rinkle Kumari, from a village in Sindh, told Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry that she had been abducted by a man called Naveed Shah, and pleaded with the highest court to let her return to her mother. It was a brave plea. Hindu women in Pakistan are routinely kidnapped and then forced to convert if they want the respectability of marriage. They are helpless, as they have neither the numbers nor the political clout to protect themselves. As Rinkle left the court, she screamed before journalists, accusing her captors of forcible conversion, before she was hustled away by the police. The case grabbed headlines, generated impassioned editorials, and highlighted the cause of a persecuted community, the 3.5 million Hindus in Pakistan. It angered liberals in Pakistan and caused the Dawn newspaper to take a strong position on persecution of minorities. But Rinkle had dared to raise her voice, and there would be a price to pay. Her parents in Ghotki village were threatened, her 70-year-old grandfather was shot at, gun-toting goons roamed outside her house. When she returned to the Pakistan Supreme Court on April 18, she meekly said she had converted to Islam. At a packed media briefing in Islamabad's Press Club, with Shah by her side, the spunk in her snuffed out, she would only say she wants to become an "obedient" wife. According to police records, each month, an average of 25 girls meet Rinkle's fate in Sindh alone, home to 90 per cent of the Hindus living in Pakistan. Young Hindu girls are 'marked', abducted, raped, and forcibly converted. Discrimination, extortion threats, killings and religious persecution are driving the remaining Hindus out of Pakistan. They had chosen to stay back after Partition; six decades later, they are no longer welcome. Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/pakistani-hindu-refugees-feel-betrayed-by-india/1/186304.html Democracy is a system in which the majority rules. It should, however, never become a system that practises brute majoritarianism. Pakistan has taken baby steps to re-establish electoral democracy over the last four years. Unfortunately, it has gone out of its way to deny its religious minorities their basic rights, their right to practise their own faith, and even more fundamentally, their right to life. The country's hardline blasphemy laws have been used to target hapless Christians. Those moderate Pakistanis who have spoken out to oppose the persecution of Christians, such as the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, have met the same fate as some of the persecuted-death. The plight of Pakistan's 3.5 million Hindus, a smaller minority than the country's Christians, has been simmering under the surface for a while. It came to the fore in the rather sensational and depressing case of 19-year-old Rinkle Kumari, a Hindu girl from rural Sindh, who in February this year was kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam and married to a local goon. Unlike many others, she came out fighting, vowing to return to her family. Her case went to Pakistan's Supreme Court, which under serious international scrutiny, gave Rinkle a free choice-to either return to her family, or remain with her husband. In a dramatic volte-face on April 18, Rinkle chose to stay with her husband. People close to her say she was forced to do so to safeguard the security of the rest of her family. Local leaders, including a member of Parliament, had threatened dire consequences if she admitted to being forcibly converted. Rinkle's case is not an isolated incident. There are tens of such cases each month where young Hindu girls are abducted, raped, forcibly converted and then married to their tormentors. Socially exploited and economically backward, an increasing number of Pakistani Hindu families are trying to make their way across the border into India where they hope to find some empathy and, in most cases, a new home. India's welcome, if one can at all call it that, has been cold. Thousands of Hindu refugees from Pakistan populate refugee camps in Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat. They live in miserable, unhygienic conditions, without jobs, without any form of social security. India's politicians, always quick to pounce on Pakistan for its flaws, have done absolutely nothing for these people who look up to India's democracy and prosperity with hope. Our cover story, written by Associate Editor Bhavna Vij-Aurora with our Pakistan correspondent Qaswar Abbas, tells the story of Pakistan's persecuted Hindus who have found no haven in India. Our correspondents visited refugee camps in India and heard heart-rending tales of young daughters kidnapped and raped, of the difficulty in getting an Indian visa, the near impossibility of actually making it to India, only to be incarcerated in refugee camps with little hope of rehabilitation or citizenship. The Indian Government has made little effort to press Pakistan to guarantee the rights of the country's Hindus. The Ministry of External Affairs usually takes the position that the matter is an "internal" one for Pakistan. The Ministry of Home Affairs is paranoid about Pakistani spies and prefers to have nothing to do with anyone from Pakistan, even a persecuted minority. The Governments of both countries need to be shaken out of their apathy. It is appalling that 3.5 million people live in such abject conditions, whether in Pakistan or India Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/india-today-editor-in-chief-aroon-purie-on-pakistani-hindu-refugees-in-india-rehabilitation/1/186299.html While NGOs and human rights activists have been pulling out all the stops to help the Pakistani Hindus seeking refuge in India, the government has poured cold water on their hopes for asylum in India. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran, said: "All such Pakistani nationals who have come to India on group pilgrimage visa will have to return to Pakistan... within the visa validity period or the short extended period allowed in specific cases." Help has been pouring in for these illegal migrants seeking sanctuary in India days after Headlines Todaybrought their plight to light. People offer help to Pakistani migrants NGOs, lawyers, professors and artists have stepped in to bring relief to the 113 Pakistanis, living in a refugee camp in the national capital. They have arranged for food, sanitation and even education for them. Even spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar met the refugees at their camp on Tuesday. These Hindus from Pakistan were victimised and persecuted in their country following which they came to India with no plans to go back. Some human rights activists have also come to their rescue. Human Rights Defence secretary general Rajesh Gohna said, "We have moved the application for extension of visa for them and now we are going to meet the chief visa officer on the first (December 1). Our group could go there along with their representatives. We will request the government of India that their visas should be extended and long-term visa should be granted to them and subsequently citizenship should also be granted to them." The refugees were overwhelmed with the support they have been getting and made no bones that they want asylum in India. One of the refugees, Shanti Devi, said, "We are surviving because of help from such people. We have food and shelter. But now we need help from the government." "Yes, we used to study there," said a girl in reply to a question, adding, "We were not taught Hindi or even Sindhi. They used to hit us a lot." Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/centre-snubs-pakistani-hindus-seeking-refuge-in-india/1/162078.html