More and more Hindus are leaving Pakistan or converting to Islam to save their future, official records and media reports suggest.
“The Hindus, like other minorities, feel insecure and are leaving for other countries, mainly India. They are also becoming Muslims to make sure they are given equal rights,” a human rights activist told this newspaper citing survey reports. He said even the government has not been able to assure the minorities, at least in their statements, that their rights will be protected.
“Hindus and other minorities feel the government is also not sincere in bringing them at par with other citizens and they also consider them second-rate citizens,” he added. Hindus make up about 1.8 per cent of Pakistan’s predominantly Muslim population of 165 million, according to official figures. The largest number, about 95 per cent, is concentrated in the southern province of Sindh. The Hindu population has declined over the years as they opt to leave the country or become Muslim to avoid discrimination.
The bias against all minority communities has expanded rapidly. Early in November, Aasia Bibi, a young Christian mother of five, was sentenced to death by a court under controversial blasphemy laws. She became the first woman to be condemned to hang under the law. The case against her seemed to have been triggered by a minor dispute with other female farm labourers on the land she worked on after they said she, as a non-Muslim, was “impure” and could not fetch water from a well.
Human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, expressed shock and in an unusual move for a politician, Punjab province governor Salman Taseer, who was assassinated last week, had visited Aasia in jail and had expressed sympathy over her plight. He had criticised the blasphemy law. Taseer was gunned down on January 3 in Islamabad by a police bodyguard who then turned himself in and said he had killed the governor as he had described the blasphemy law as a “black law”.
The secretary-general of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, I.A. Rehman, said, “This is the result of increased incitement of hatred by extremists and militants.”
Hindus have faced especially tough times. “These days we Hindus live in fear and with a constant sense of insecurity,” Amarnath Motumal, a Hindu community leader and lawyer, said, adding that one reason for this is the kidnapping of Hindu girls who are then married off to Muslim men and converted to Islam. “We have no problem, of course, when a girl aged over 18 chooses to marry a Muslim of her own free will and converts (Islamic laws in force in the country make it mandatory for a Hindu to convert in order to marry a Muslim). But these kidnappings involve girls who are much younger and the courts have upheld marriages of this nature,” he said.
According to Mr Motumal, 10 to 15 such abductions took place each month in the Lyari locality of Karachi alone. “Many more occur in rural areas of Sindh but not all families want to talk about them,” he added.
In other places kidnappings take place for other reasons. From the south-western province of Balochistan there have been reports of Hindus being abducted in increasing numbers. Ransom has been sought in some cases.
Mr Motumal believes, however, that in Balochistan Hindus are being “picked up” by security forces because they are perceived as backing nationalists in the province who are waging a struggle for autonomy. “These persons are labelled as Indian agents backing nationalists even though they have lived in Balochistan for generations and have no links with India,” Mr Motumal said.
The Pakistan government accuses India of fuelling unrest in Balochistan, a charge that India denies.
There has also been a spate of kidnappings of Hindu children, usually for ransom. According to a survey by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPRC), a local NGO, 23 such abductions took place between January 2008 and December 2010.
Salam Dharejo, SPRC’s national manager for child labour, believes the fact Hindu communities usually combine resources to pay the money demanded and rescue children makes them vulnerable to such crime. “The families of victims do not trust the police and are scared of the criminals as well,” Mr Dharejo said.
“The Hindus feel helpless. Children are being kept away from even the doors of their homes and in the Hindu locality of Kandhkot town all Hindu children are being kept away from school,” he said.
Ramesh Lala, a member of Pakistan’s National Assembly and a representative of Hindus, said, “This is the result of a worsening law and order situation in Sindh where kidnappings are becoming more and more frequent. It is not just Hindus who suffer.”
“Being a Hindu mother today is terrifying. I fear my 14-year-old daughter could be taken away, my husband victimised as he sometimes openly speaks out in favour of his religion, or my younger children kidnapped. The police ignores us when we complain so criminals target us,” said Asha Lal, 40. She said the growth of extremism and laws such as those on blasphemy “led to Hindus and other non-Muslims suffering”.
In May 2008 a Hindu factory worker was killed on blasphemy charges while a year later Hindus came under attack in the town of Umerkot following another charge of blasphemy.
Hindu temples have also come under attack, bringing angry protests from community leaders.
“All this violence against Hindus began in the 1980s, but lately it has been growing worse. We do not feel safe,” Amarnath Motumal said.