rajpaldular
Active member
Hindus have remained a minority in Pakistan since the creation of the country in 1947 when India was partitioned into two separate countries: a new India and Pakistan. Since its inception Pakistan has struggled with supporting a democratic government from being overtaken by a military dictatorship, sectarian violence, and harsh treatment of its minorities including Hindus, Shias, Christians, Sikhs, and several other communities.
In particular Hindus in Pakistan have experienced harsh and severely inhumane living conditions. Kidnappings, physical and psychological torture, rapes, forced conversions to Islam, forced marriages of young Hindu girls to Muslim men, lack of police protection, bonded labor, and religious-based discrimination have become the norm for Hindus who involuntarily became citizens of the newly created Islamic Republic in 1947. Of late the rise in Islamic fundamentalism throughout Pakistan has created a viciously hostile environment, choking Hindus and other minorities of their basic rights to live in the land of their forefathers.
A quintessential case of this scenario is that of Rinkel Kumari, a 17-year old Sindhi Hindu girl from the town of Mirpur Mathelo who was kidnapped at gunpoint on February 24, 2012. Rinkel’s case has gained tremendous media attention in Pakistan and around the world – not because it is shockingly rare – but because it is one of several recent cases in which young Hindu girls were kidnapped, tortured, forcibly converted to Islam under the mandate of a Mullah (a religious cleric), and immediately forced to marry a Muslim man. While cases like this are common in Pakistan, their intensified frequency and the subsequent reactions elicited by the Hindu community are now unparalleled to similar events in the past.
Notably, the man behind Rinkel’s abduction, Mian Abdul Haq, is a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Her abduction by a MNA of the ruling political party in Pakistan clearly highlights a case of state-sponsored terrorism. That too, by another Sindhi. The difference is that Mian Abdul Haq is a Muslim Sindhi not a Hindu Sindhi.
Moreover, the same week Rinkel was kidnapped three other Hindu girls were kidnapped and underwent the same harassment, conversion, and forced marriage including a physician who worked at a prestigious hospital in Karachi. Since Rinkel was kidnapped four months ago over one hundred other Hindu girls in Sindh have been either kidnapped and converted or are reported missing.
Rinkel Kumari was kidnapped from her home at approximately 4:00 AM on February 24, 2012 by some neighbors and brought to the Dargah Alia Qadria Bharchundi Sharif, an Islamic seminary. After Rinkel was kidnapped she was held by her abductors at the Bharchundi Sharif Darghah and the following day she was brought to a provincial court in Ghotki, the district of Sindh where she lived. Her abductors stated that she willingly converted to Islam and married a Muslim man by choice. She, on the other hand, stated that she was kidnapped and wished to return back to her family. After delivering her statement to the judge she was slapped in the face by one of her abductors and the court was adjourned until two days later. During this time she remained in the legal custody of the police, but her abductors had easy access to her while her family did not. While in police custody Rinkel was threatened and abused into changing her testimony which she eventually did.
Two days later when the court reconvened Rinkel stated she willingly converted to Islam and married her neighbor Naveed Shah by choice. She left the court in tears and her conversion to Islam was immediately celebrated by several hundred to a thousand armed men outside the court who aggressively surrounded her and her new husband. Many of the men were armed with kalashnikovs and violently fired bullets in the air during the boisterous parade that followed. The actual video footage of this apocalyptic circus and the celebration of an Islamic victory over the Hindu minority can be found on YouTube.
Notably Rinkel’s family was never allowed inside the court building and was deliberately misguided by the local police force. Ironically the police had blocked off the main roads that lead to the provincial court the day of Rinkel’s hearing. Only those who were aware of the complicated detour were able to make it to the court. Somehow Mian Abdul Haq and his followers were aware of this esoteric information.
Likewise the timing of Rinkel’s second hearing in the provincial court in Ghotki was moved up by over two hours to intentionally avoid her family’s presence. By the time her family showed up to the court the hearing was complete and she had already been declared a married woman. While her actual age on this date was 17, the marriage certificate stated 22 to avoid the involvement of her parents given that she was still a minor and needed their permission to legally marry according to Pakistani law.
Rinkel’s family subsequently petitioned the Sindh High Court in Karachi at which time she was brought before the judge and sent to Dar-ul-Aman, a women’s shelter in Islamabad until the case would be further examined in the Supreme Court a few weeks later.
Contd.
In particular Hindus in Pakistan have experienced harsh and severely inhumane living conditions. Kidnappings, physical and psychological torture, rapes, forced conversions to Islam, forced marriages of young Hindu girls to Muslim men, lack of police protection, bonded labor, and religious-based discrimination have become the norm for Hindus who involuntarily became citizens of the newly created Islamic Republic in 1947. Of late the rise in Islamic fundamentalism throughout Pakistan has created a viciously hostile environment, choking Hindus and other minorities of their basic rights to live in the land of their forefathers.
A quintessential case of this scenario is that of Rinkel Kumari, a 17-year old Sindhi Hindu girl from the town of Mirpur Mathelo who was kidnapped at gunpoint on February 24, 2012. Rinkel’s case has gained tremendous media attention in Pakistan and around the world – not because it is shockingly rare – but because it is one of several recent cases in which young Hindu girls were kidnapped, tortured, forcibly converted to Islam under the mandate of a Mullah (a religious cleric), and immediately forced to marry a Muslim man. While cases like this are common in Pakistan, their intensified frequency and the subsequent reactions elicited by the Hindu community are now unparalleled to similar events in the past.
Notably, the man behind Rinkel’s abduction, Mian Abdul Haq, is a Member of the National Assembly (MNA) of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Her abduction by a MNA of the ruling political party in Pakistan clearly highlights a case of state-sponsored terrorism. That too, by another Sindhi. The difference is that Mian Abdul Haq is a Muslim Sindhi not a Hindu Sindhi.
Moreover, the same week Rinkel was kidnapped three other Hindu girls were kidnapped and underwent the same harassment, conversion, and forced marriage including a physician who worked at a prestigious hospital in Karachi. Since Rinkel was kidnapped four months ago over one hundred other Hindu girls in Sindh have been either kidnapped and converted or are reported missing.
Rinkel Kumari was kidnapped from her home at approximately 4:00 AM on February 24, 2012 by some neighbors and brought to the Dargah Alia Qadria Bharchundi Sharif, an Islamic seminary. After Rinkel was kidnapped she was held by her abductors at the Bharchundi Sharif Darghah and the following day she was brought to a provincial court in Ghotki, the district of Sindh where she lived. Her abductors stated that she willingly converted to Islam and married a Muslim man by choice. She, on the other hand, stated that she was kidnapped and wished to return back to her family. After delivering her statement to the judge she was slapped in the face by one of her abductors and the court was adjourned until two days later. During this time she remained in the legal custody of the police, but her abductors had easy access to her while her family did not. While in police custody Rinkel was threatened and abused into changing her testimony which she eventually did.
Two days later when the court reconvened Rinkel stated she willingly converted to Islam and married her neighbor Naveed Shah by choice. She left the court in tears and her conversion to Islam was immediately celebrated by several hundred to a thousand armed men outside the court who aggressively surrounded her and her new husband. Many of the men were armed with kalashnikovs and violently fired bullets in the air during the boisterous parade that followed. The actual video footage of this apocalyptic circus and the celebration of an Islamic victory over the Hindu minority can be found on YouTube.
Notably Rinkel’s family was never allowed inside the court building and was deliberately misguided by the local police force. Ironically the police had blocked off the main roads that lead to the provincial court the day of Rinkel’s hearing. Only those who were aware of the complicated detour were able to make it to the court. Somehow Mian Abdul Haq and his followers were aware of this esoteric information.
Likewise the timing of Rinkel’s second hearing in the provincial court in Ghotki was moved up by over two hours to intentionally avoid her family’s presence. By the time her family showed up to the court the hearing was complete and she had already been declared a married woman. While her actual age on this date was 17, the marriage certificate stated 22 to avoid the involvement of her parents given that she was still a minor and needed their permission to legally marry according to Pakistani law.
Rinkel’s family subsequently petitioned the Sindh High Court in Karachi at which time she was brought before the judge and sent to Dar-ul-Aman, a women’s shelter in Islamabad until the case would be further examined in the Supreme Court a few weeks later.
Contd.
