Hindu community will protest against forced conversion, kidnapping and marriage of minors in Pakistan

Karachi : Members of Pakistan’s minority Hindu community will hold a rally later this month to protest against rising incidents of forced conversions, kidnapping and marriage of minors and will gather outside the Sidh Assembly building here. The rally being organized by several Hindu community leaders in Sindh province will be held on March 30 under the banner of Pakistan Darawar Ittehad (PDI), an organization working for the rights of minorities in the country.

Posters released by the organization on social media said that the rally is being organized to protest against the abduction, forced conversion and marriage of minor girls and the forcible occupation of Hindu community land in Sindh province. PDI president Fakir Shiva Kuchi said, “We are expecting thousands of people from the Hindu community to participate in the rally because the government has turned a blind eye to the abduction, forced conversions and fake marriages of our women and girls.” He said that the organization has started taking out rallies across the province to spread awareness.

“We want that when this protest rally will be held on March 30, everyone should see the issues faced by Hindus and members of other minority communities in the country,” he said. Kuchi said they demanded that a stalled bill against forced conversions and marriages be passed in the Sindh assembly. In 2019, the issue of kidnapping and forced conversion of Hindu girls in various districts of Sindh province was raised in the Sindh assembly.

A motion was debated and passed unanimously after amendment on the objections of some MLAs that it should not be restricted to Hindu girls only. The bill to criminalize forced conversions, however, was later rejected in the assembly. A similar bill was proposed again, but was rejected in 2021.