Systemic injustice against minorities in Pakistan: another minor Hindu girl forcefully converted

GHRTV

Jun 14, 2023 - 16:19 Updated: Jun 15, 2023 - 14:36

0 87

Systemic injustice against minorities in Pakistan: another minor Hindu girl forcefully converted

DAWN (https://www.dawn.com/news/1345304)

13-06-2023

V. Sivasankar

Team Pakistan Researcher,

Global Human Rights Defence.

In the Sindh province of Pakistan, another minor hindu girl was violently abducted and forcefully converted at the age of 14. Sohana Kumar Sharma was kidnapped at gunpoint by her tutor and his accomplices on June 2nd 2023 in front of her mother (India, 2023). Via social media, a video emerged on the internet where Sohana was forced to proclaim her conversion to Islam and announce her marriage to her abductor. Evidently threatened to do so, the event raised alarm bells throughout the hindu community in Pakistan.

Sohanas father, Dilip Sharma, filed a report to the police in the hopes of attaining justice and bringing his daughter home. On June 9th, her parents appeared in the Larkana District Court to hear Sohana explain her horrifying ordeal and plea to be returned to her parents. Her mother further added that the private tutor had previously demanded a large sum of money a few days before the abduction (OpIndia, 2023). Despite the moral, legal and emotional reasoning provided by the Sharma family, the court adjourned the case until June 12th which only further delays justice in a time sensitive matter. Dilip Sharma further attested that the documents produced in front of the judge to prove the validity of the conversion and marriage were in fact fake. He further added “I don’t know how government officials can stamp such documents when the girl is 14 years old”.

At this time, Sohana is being held at a women’s shelter alongside many other such victims of forceful conversions and hate crimes on the basis of religion. Such incidents are unfortunately not uncommon in Pakistan, especially in provinces like Sindh where the Hindu minorities are in large numbers. In march this year, the Pakistan Darawar Ittehad (PDI), a local organisation held demonstrations to highlight this issue and stated that as persecution of young Hindu girls increases, there continues to be a lack of cooperation and accountability from the authorities (Organiser, 2023). Sheely Meghwar, Chanda Maharaj, Simran Kumari, Pooja Kumari and Kaveeta Bheel are some of the other such victims, many of whom have succumbed to their abuse due to extreme conditions and a lack of necessary action to protect them (India, 2023).

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, roughly 1000 girls are forcefully converted and abused in similar ways each year (Organiser, 2023). With Hindus being only 1.2% of the total population, still being the largest religious minority, their population continues to dwindle as such persecution is ignored and catalysed by systemic inaction from the government, police and legal systems. It is clear that this issue, also affecting other minorities like Christians, requires immediate action due to its expanding scale and severity.

Sources and further readings: