A Hindu girl abducted in Hyderabad Sindh Pakistan

• A Hindu girl has reportedly been abducted in Hyderabad, Pakistan’s Sindh province.
• Chandra Mehraj (Brahman higher caste Hindus) was abducted while returning home from Fateh Chowk in Hyderabad.
• A police report was filed, but the girl has yet to be found.

Hindus and other minorities, who constitute just 3.5 percent of Pakistan’s population as per CIA data, continue to face persecution in the Islamic Republic. In October last year, a parliamentary panel rejected a bill against forcible conversions.

According to the girl’s parents, Chandra Mehraj was kidnapped from Fateh Chowk area of Hyderabad while she was returning home. According to reports, a police complaint has been filed but the girl is yet to be found.

This comes days after three women from the minority Hindu community were kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam, bringing into light the atrocities committed against minorities in Pakistan.

On September 24, A 14-year-old girl named Meena Meghwar was abducted from Nasarpur area and another girl was kidnapped while returning home in Mirpurkhas town.

In the same town, a Hindu man named Ravi Kurmi alleged his wife Rakhi was kidnapped and later showed up after she allegedly converted to Islam and married a Muslim man. However, the local police claimed Rakhi converted to Islam and married Ahmed Chandio of her own will.

In recent times Pakistan has witnessed a string of atrocities against Hindus. In June this year, a teenage Hindu girl Kareena Kumari testified before court that she was forcibly converted to Islam and married a Muslim man.

The incident took place three months after three Hindu girls named Satran Oad, Kaveeta Bheel and Anita Bheel also met the same fate.

On March 21, a Hindu girl named Pooja Kumari was shot dead outside her home in Sukkur after she refused the marriage proposal of a Pakistani man.

In October last year, a parliamentary committee in Pakistan had rejected a bill against forced religious conversions with then religious affairs minister Noorul Haq Qadri saying the environment was not favourable to enact a law against forcible religious conversions. The minister had even gone on to claim that a law against forcible conversions could disturb peace in the country and make minorities more vulnerable, Dawn had reported.