Things won't change until international community supports us: Sindh activist on Hindu girl murder

A day after a Hindu girl from Sindh was found murdered in her hostel room, a Sindh activist on Wednesday called on the world community to raise its voice against the atrocities carried out targeting his community in Pakistan.

"The whole Sindh has risen. The protests are happening everywhere. But we believe that until the international government does not support us, we do not stand a chance against this fascist regime," Lakhu Luhana, the Secretary-General of World Sindhi Congress.

First year medical student, Namrita Chandani, who belonged to Ghotki town where a Hindu temple was ransacked recently, was found lying on a charpoy on Tuesday with a piece of cloth tied to her neck while her room was locked from inside.

The police and authorities have tried to downplay the incident by saying that she committed suicide. However, her family has asserted that she was murdered.

Namrita's brother, Vishal, who is a medical consultant, said that the preliminary checkup showed that she was murdered.

In recent times, several cases of forced conversion have come to the fore, highlighting religious persecution in Pakistan.

Every year, around 1,000 young Sindhi Hindu girls between ages 12 and 28 are abducted, forcibly married and converted to Islam, US-based Sindhi Foundation has said.

According to Pakistan's own human rights commission, from January 2004 to May 2018, there were 7,430 cases of such abductions of Sindhi girls in Pakistan. The actual number is estimated to be much higher as most of the cases go unreported.

The recent incident of abduction, forcible marriage and religious conversion of a Sikh girl of Nankana Sahib is a telling example of what minorities go through in Pakistan. Jagjit Kaur daughter of the Granthi of Nanakana Sahib Gurdwara, the birthplace of Shri Guru Nanak Dev, in Pakistan, was allegedly abducted and forcibly converted to Islam after her marriage to a Muslim man.