Over 50 Hindus have been kidnapped in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province over the past four years, forcing members of the minority community to migrate to other parts of the country. Basant Lal Gulshan, the Human Rights and Minority A f f a i r s M i n i s t e r f o r Balochistan, said over 50 members of the Hindu community we re abdu c t ed a c ros s t h e province in four years. “Among those are two assistants from my own pharmacy, abducted two days ago,” he said. “While Musharraf was in power for nine years, there were only seven instances of kidnapping,” Gulshan told The Express Tribune. The alarming increase in kidnapping of Hindus was confirmed by Balochistan Chief Secretary Ahmed Bakhsh Lehri. Of a total of 72 people kidnapped in the past few months, 24 were Hindus, he said. Twenty-one people had either been released or recovered through the efforts of the Hindus themselves, Lehri said. B a l o c h i s t a n Hom e Secretary Naseebullah Bazai too said incidents of kidnapping for ransom and other heinous crimes have increased in the province.
The rise in kidnappings has forced Hindus to migrate from Balochistan to other parts of the country, Bazai told the media on Saturday. Balochistan and Sindh provinces have sizeable Hindu populations. Over the past few years, dozens of Hindus, most of them petty traders, have been k i d n app e d for r an s om i n Balochistan. Several cases of forced conversion of Hindus have been reported from Sindh.
Human Rights Minister Gulshan said Hindus were targeted because the communityis perceived to be “financially well off but weak”. The Hindus are mostly traders and businessmen, and the community c om p r i s e s t w o - t h i r d s o f Balochistan minority population of 300,000, he said. Most Hindus live in the Baloch-settled areas of Sibi, Nasirabad, Bhag and Dhadar, said Lehri. Most of the Kidnappings, however, take place in Kalat which is home to a major Hindu temple dedicated to goddess Kali, said the Chief Secretary. Those abducted are taken to Khuzdar, a tribal district bordering Sindh, which has limited police presence, Lehri said. The district has the Levies militia but they are illequipped to confront kidnappers, he added. Contrary to popular perception, the abductors are not separatists, Lehri said. “These are common criminals, mostly unemployed men, who demand a high ransom for the Hindus,” he added.
Around 50 Hindu families have moved from Quetta to K a r a c h i i n t h e p a s t t w o months, said Gulshan. More t h a n 1 5 0 f a m i l i e s a c r o s s Balochistan have moved out in the past few years. Most of t hem went to Indi a on a visit visa but have not returned, he said. “The exodus may still be reversible. Most have left their business behind under caretakers or managers, and not sold them off,” Gulshan said.
B e s ide s Hi ndus , ot he r minority communities who have been the target of crimes a r e o n t h e i r w a y o u t o f Balochistan. Zoroastrians, who are a negligible minority, no longer live in Balochistan, said Tahir Hussain of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. Faridoon Abadan, a former provincial minister and owner of Quetta Distillery, was kidnapped over 10 years ago and is yet to be traced. His wife Nilofer was the first woman to be kidnapped in Balochistan in February last year. She was freed after paying 30 million in ransom and her family is now moving out of the province. After severa l h i g h - p r o f i l e t a r g e t e d attacks, the Shia Hazara community too is quitting the province. “Around 16,000 people from the Hazara or Persianspeaking community left Quetta last year,” Hussain said.
No comments:
Post a Comment