Members of Pak's Hindu community to protest forced conversion, abductions and marriages of minors
Karachi (PTI): Members of Pakistan's minority Hindu community will organise a rally and converge at the Sindh Assembly building here later this month to protest the rising incidents of forced conversions, abductions and marriages of minors.
The rally, which is being organised by several Hindu community leaders in Sindh province, will be held on March 30, under the banner of Pakistan Darawer Ittehad, an organisation working for minority rights in the country.
Posters released by the organisation on social media said the rally is being held to protest the abduction, forced conversion and marriages of minor girls and forced possession of land belonging to the Hindu community in the Sindh province.
"We are expecting thousands from the Hindu community to participate in the rally as the government has turned a blind eye to the abductions, forced conversions and fake marriages of our women and girls," Chairman of Pakistan Darawer Ittehad Faqir Shiva Kuchi said.
He said the outfit has already begun mobilising rallies across the province to raise awareness.
"When this protest rally will be held on March 30, we want everyone to see the issues faced by Hindus and members from other minority communities in the country," he explained.
Kuchi added that their demand was that a stalled bill against forced conversion and marriages be passed in the Sindh Assembly.
In 2019, the issue of abducting and forcible conversion of Hindu girls in various districts of Sindh province was taken up in the Sindh Assembly.
A resolution was debated and unanimously passed after it was modified over objections of certain lawmakers that it should not be restricted to only Hindu girls.
But the bill, which criminalised forcible religious conversions was later rejected in the assembly. A similar bill was again proposed, but it got rejected in 2021.
In January this year, as many as 12 United Nations rights experts expressed alarm over the rising incidents of kidnapping, forced conversions and marriages of girls as young as 13 in Pakistan.
Forced conversion and forced marriages are prohibited in Islam.
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan's report, around 1,000 girls are forcibly converted to Islam every year.
It noted that most of the converted girls belong to the impoverished Hindu community from the Sindh province.
Hindus form the biggest minority community in Pakistan.
According to official estimates, 75 lakh Hindus live in the Muslim-majority country.
Muslims account for about 96 per cent of Pakistan's 207 million population, Hindus 2.1 per cent and Christians about 1.6 per cent according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan estimates.
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Jharkhand horror: Man kills live-in partner, chops body into 40 pieces
Ranchi (PTI): A 25-year-old man, who works as a butcher, allegedly strangled to death his live-in partner and chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces in a forested area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, police said on Wednesday.
The accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, was arrested.
The matter came to light after around a fortnight after the killing when a stray dog was found with human body parts near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.
Bhengra was in a live-in relationship with the deceased, a 24-year-old woman also from Khunti district, in Tamil Nadu for the past couple of years. Sometime back, he returned to Jharkhand, got married to another woman without telling his partner anything and went back to the southern state without his wife to join her.
"The brutal incident occurred on November 8 when they reached Khunti as the accused who had married another woman did not wish to take her home. Instead, he took her to a forest near his house at Jordag village in Jariagarh police station and chopped the body into pieces. The man has been arrested," Khunti Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar told PTI.
Inspector Ashok Singh who investigated the case said the man worked in a butcher shop in Tamil Nadu and was expert in slicing chicken.
“He admitted chopping the body parts of the woman into 40 to 50 pieces before leaving those in the forest for wild animals to feast on. The police recovered several parts on November 24 after a dog in the area was seen with a hand," Singh told PTI.
Singh said that the woman, who was unaware of his marriage, pressured him to return to Khunti. After reaching Ranchi, they boarded a train on November 24 and headed to the man's village.
"Under a plan, the man took her to Khunti in an autorickshaw near his home and asked her to wait. He returned with sharp weapons and strangulated her with her dupatta after raping her. He then cut the body into 40 to 50 pieces and left for his home to live with his wife," Singh said.
The woman, however, had informed her mother that she had boarded a train and would be living with her partner, the police officer said.
Following the recovery of body parts, a bag was also found in the forest with the murdered woman's belongings including her Aadhaar card. The mother of the woman was called at the spot and she identified her daughter's belongings.
"The mother suspected the man behind the crime who after being nabbed by the police admitted to chopping the woman into pieces," the official added.
The incident has sent shockwaves among people in the region, with the Shraddha Walker murder case of 2022 still fresh in their memory.
Walker was killed by her live-in partner who chopped her body into pieces before dumping them in the jungle in South Delhi’s Mehrauli.
