Pakistani Hindu girl survives forced conversion bid, but the future is dark (Pics inside)

Tarique Khoso is a human rights worker based in Pakistan and he recently shared case of a young Dalit Hindu woman. He informed that on November 9th in Sindh’s Mithi, a Dalit Hindu woman Asmia Kolhi was drugged, kidnapped, and then forced to marry and convert to Islam by an influential Muslim man. The Hindu girl, Asmia Kolhi was kept as a prisoner in the Kundri village.

However, the girl’s family went to the court with the help of Khoso and the Dalit Hindu girl was able to regain her freedom.

But at what cost? Now, the girl and her family are under threat from the Muslim family who see it as an insult to the majority religion  as Dalit Hindus remain the most disadvantaged in Pakistan confined to bonded labour and menial jobs.

The case of Pakistan is of a peculiar kind as most of the Hindus residing can be truly considered voiceless with little to no access to the media.

Just recently, a batch of 104 Hindus was converted in Sindh with the blessing of politician Fazal Moh Raho and Hafiz Ghulam Moh Soho. The presence of politicians indeed sketches a worrisome picture for the Hindus like Asmia Kolhi, who are doubly disadvantaged due to their religion and also due to their financial state. Influential Muslims provide the muscle and financial power to the politicians and Islamic seminaries which give them a powerful clout, in short, the hapless ‘subjects’ like Asmia are many with no access to justice.

Many Hindus, actually in thousands, are leaving Pakistan and coming to neighboring India as refugees in the hope that there they would breath free, but is this is a solution? How far can India continue to provide refuge as Pakistani state continues to abandon its responsibility towards its own citizens? Can India continue to take more population while it struggles with its own growing one?

Lack of proper reporting

In the case of Pakistan, the Hindus have absolutely no ways to get themselves heard. A few Hindus who are vocal on social media are often forced to shut their voice in the garb of honor of Pakistan or on the pretext of blasphemy, the latter one being a highly potent tool which no one can mess with. The fact that abusing Hindus is almost seen as normal is no more a surprise either.

A few months ago, the Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar dutifully recounted the that the ‘Two Nations Theory‘ was the basis of the creation of Pakistan. He had said that Syed Ahmad Khan was probably the first thinker who built the Two Nations theory and identified two nations; one was the Muslim and the other, which he didn’t wish to even name.

His choice of words if spoken in India would have brought a political tsunami of sorts, but the Pakistani civil society and media stayed mum.

You can hear it from 7.00 to 7.11:

From being called ‘dogs’ on television to have their daughters abducted, Pakistani Hindus are bearing it all in the hope that they will get heard one day.

Recent activists like Veerji Kolhi and Veeru Kolhi have tried to bring about a change in the lives of ordinary Pakistani Hindus but in a country where the disdain for Hindus has reached even the Chief Justice, what can become of this community in the near future?

Namta Gupta