59 Hindus converted to Islam in Pakistan Sindh

Desk: At least 59 Hindus have been converted to Islam in Badin in Pakistan. According to reports, the landlord of agricultural land they have been cultivating for years (read, as bonded labourers) converted them to Islam in lieu of protection and economic support.

A report in The Express Tribune of Pakistan says that there were 23 women among those who were converted to Islam. All of those belonged to the Bheel community and were working in the lands of the former Matlab municipal committee chairperson Abdul Rauf Nizamani for years.

A large number of Hindus in Badin area have been working as bonded labourers and they are often lured to convert to Islam in exchange for freedom from bondage.

Nizamani was reported as saying: “They all happily and willingly converted to Islam. No one forced them to leave their former religion.”

However, the Tribune also quoted him contradicting himself and saying that he had asked them to embrace Islam. It quoted him: “They had no religion. These families were between Hinduism and Islam. Islam offers protection. Most of their relative had already converted.”

However, The Tribune also quoted a local Hindu activist Mukesh Meghwar as saying: “No one forcibly asks these poor souls to convert, but the people behind such acts slowly brainwash them into hating the Hindu religion. Muslim landlords offer them economic opportunities. Our culture is under threat. We are already a minority. We will not be heard anywhere.”

Forced conversions of Hindus and abduction of Hindu girls is a common phenomenon in Pakistan. Most of such conversions and abductions go unreported. However, a few somehow do find a way to social media.

The Hindus, although only a few of them are left around in Pakistan, are fighting a losing battle against the entire state of Pakistan. And the world mutely watches their plight without doing anything.

A few Hindus along with other minorities are now organising a protest demonstration in front of Sindh Assembly demanding a bill for protecting Hindu and other minority girls.

However, no minority or human rights champions have ever taken any notice of the atrocitiels being committed against the minorities in Pakistan, especially Hindus, Sikhs and Christians.

Whatever, reports come out of Pakistan are mostly confined to those which the Christian organisations in the West somehow come to know and find it suitable to publicise.

Hindus of Pakistan are not only disorganised, but also do not get any help from any Hindu or human rights organisations from any other country, including India.

In India, any attempt to help them is met with fierce resistance from those who brand themselves as champions of minorities.

The massive protest against CAA, and the support it got from different human rights organisations as well as the liberal media, was one of the example of how the entire world has abandoned and forgotten the plight of minorities of Pakistan.