Although Islamabad repeatedly claims that its Hindu minority community people are safe and not leaving Pakistan, a group of 171 Hindus landed in Jodhpur on Sunday when the Thar Express arrived in Jodhpur. All of them came on pilgrim visas but their group leader said they would not return back to Pakistan. The Seemant Lok Sangthan (SLS) has sought a refugee status for these Hindus. The SLS accorded them help and provided them food and shelter when they reached Jodhpur.
The SLS has been campaigning for these Hindus for years. According to the SLS, all of them came from Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh. “They all belong to Sanghar and Hyderabad districts in the Sindh,” SLS president Hindu Singh Sodha said.
The group included more than 32 women and children. They come from tribal community of Bheels. The Pakistani Hindus narrated their ordeals when the SLS members and relatives gathered at the railway station to receive them. “You can not imagine our pain. I lost my father recently and did not get space to perform his last rites, we were denied (the space) where ever we went,” Ganesh (name changed), the leader of the group, said while speaking over phone from Jodhpur.
“We will not return to Pakistan, you can kill us here but we do not want to go back. Everyday we face persecution and trouble has doubled with the rise of Islamic extremism,” he added.