February 26, 2016: A Hindu girl Lachmi Kolhi aged 16 years old has been kidnapped in Khipro, Sindh, Pakistan on 20th February 2016.
Till now the kidnapping has not yet been picked up by the Pakistani national media as forced conversions are a hush-hush affair in the country.
The most known case of a forced conversion from Pakistan is that of the Rinkle Kumari case of 2012 which even got the USA government involved, but even the pressure from the world’s biggest democratic power failed to get justice for the Pakistani Hindu girl, whose whereabouts and fate remain unknown until today. Her family was forced out of Pakistan by radicals and at present it resides in India living the life of a refugee in Raipur, Chattisgarh.
Cases after cases of forced conversions have come out in the public domain due to social media while the mainstream media turns a blind eye to the atrocities.
The case of the 12 years old Sana Shahid, a Christian girl, who was abducted and forced to convert by radical Islamists shook the country after international human rights organizations took notice of the case. However, Hindus have had no such luck with the Hindu organizations unable to take any concrete actions so far.
13-year-old Pakistani Hindu girl Radhika Meghwar who was living with her family in the SITE area Hyderabad was also kidnapped from her house and that she is being forcefully converted is what the family of this minor girl fears. It is impossible for a convert to renounce the faith in Pakistan as it could lead to violence against the convert and her family. In most cases, the minor girls are also married off quickly to older men and are never seen in the public after that, which many activists say happens as the girls are quickly trafficked away.
In the last week of December 2015, two Hindu girls were kidnapped from Thul one was Sapna who was produced before the court and the other was Raj Kumari who went untraceable.
The Hindu persecution in Pakistan happens not just with the demolition of the Hindu temples, forced conversions and land grabbing, but even at the education level. For example, a Hindu student is forced to study Islamic literature and pass “A” level or else the child would not be eligible to go for further education in Pakistan. This happens only with the Hindu students as even the Christian students can take up the holy Bible as their subject.
But this, however terrible, is not the only reason for the Pakistani Hindu community to be worried about their future, the destruction of the Hindu temples with the backing of the state actors of Pakistan is another sad reality that it has to face.
A report by a leading Pakistani newspaper, www.nation.com.pk, states clearly that the Hindu temple which stands in the northwestern Peshawar is being demolished ‘secretly’ so as to grab the land and build a commercial plaza on it. This temple is at the Karimpura in Peshawar’s old quarters.
This is being done under the guise of ‘ repairs’ and the process has been undertaken at least 12 days back without any steps taken by the government to stop it.
These atrocities are forcing Pakistani Hindus to migrate to India in big numbers and the Indian government has also eased regulations to allow Pakistani Hindus to stay put in the country.
