INDIA, May 20, 2011 (India Today): In March, Poonam, a 13-year-old Hindu girl kidnapped last year, was forced to convert in the Lyari area of Karachi in Pakistan’s Sindh province. Her parents were stunned by the influence the Islamic scholars had over their daughter. Poonam is now Mariam. No one protested against Poonam’s conversion because almost every Hindu family in Lyari has endured religious persecution for years.
Kidnapping is routine in Pakistan. But what has shaken the 2.7 million-strong Hindu community in a nation of 168 million Muslims are recent forced conversions of young girls. Many see the incidents as a
conspiracy to drive Hindus out of Pakistan. Research done by local agencies says that on average 25 Hindu girls are kidnapped and converted every month in Pakistan.
Hindus comprised nearly 15 per cent of the country’s population in 1947. Now, they are a mere 2 per cent. Many have left, many more have been killed, and others have converted to survive. Hindus are allowed to vote only in separate electorates and are not allowed to register marriages. Of the 428 temples in the country, only 26 are functioning, says Jagmohan Kumar Arora, 60, community head in Rawalpindi. To make matters worse, the Shamshan Ghat in Rawalpindi, used by Hindus and Sikhs to perform last rites, was demolished on July 19, 2010.
Following the riots after Babri Masjid’s demolition in India, attacks on Hindus have only increased; Hindus in Pakistan are routinely affected by communal incidents in India and violent developments in Kashmir. A 2005 report by the National Commission for Justice and Peace, a non-profit organisation in Pakistan, found that Pakistan Studies textbooks have been used to inculcate hatred towards Hindus. From these government-issued textbooks, students are taught that Hindus are backward and superstitious,” the report stated.