Minority rights teams on Thursday highlighted ongoing atrocities towards Hindu minorities in Pakistan, notably the kidnapping and abuse of teenage women.
A number one minority rights group revealed {that a} 15-year-old Hindu woman and a scholar of Class 9, Shaneela Meghwar, was forcibly kidnapped at gunpoint from her house, positioned on Matli’s Periods’ Courtroom Highway in Badin district of Pakistan’s Sindh province.
The Voice of Pakistan Minority (VOPM) talked about that the incident unfolded on June 23, and as of July 17, there was no breakthrough within the case, and Shaneela continues to be lacking, whereas her household’s cries for justice develop louder with every passing day.
“Shaneela, a brilliant scholar at school 9, had desires as unusual as any woman her age — desires of a future formed by schooling and hope. However these desires have been shattered that fateful evening when two armed males stormed into her house. In keeping with her uncle, Majnu Maharaj, the intruders pointed their weapons on the household, violently pulled Shaneela out of her home, and threw her right into a ready white car. The automobile, carrying two different males, disappeared into the evening, forsaking solely shattered hearts and a group in shock,” learn an announcement issued by the VOPM.
The minority rights group highlighted that the Meghwar household turned to the Matli police, however the response they obtained has solely deepened their despair. Regardless of the gravity of the crime, it said that the police “appeared detached”.
Shaneela’s uncle Majnu remembers how the First Data Report (FIR) was solely registered after group strain, and but it failed to call the primary accused, Maqsood Dars.
“The household believes that the police are deliberately shielding the culprits, leaving them to wonder if the justice system has failed them totally. For Shaneela’s household, the worry of what might have occurred to her is compounded by a grim actuality that many minority women in rural Sindh face — the potential for being forcibly transformed and married, a tragic destiny that continues to plague marginalised communities,” the rights group emphasised.
“Social media platforms have been flooded with posts about Shaneela’’s abduction, calling for justice and highlighting the slow-moving investigation. Allegations have emerged, suggesting that highly effective native figures could also be shielding the abductors, additional complicating the pursuit of justice, it added.
The VOPM asserted that in Pakistan, the place minority communities usually dwell on the margins of society, the kidnapping of a younger woman like Shaneela is not only a private tragedy; it’s a stark reminder of the “systemic injustices confronted by those that are already invisible within the eyes of the state”.
In the meantime, Pakistani minority rights activist, Shiva Kachhi, Co-Chairman and Founding father of Minority Rights Organisation, talked about on Thursday that the Further Periods Choose of Pakistan’s Khipro Sanghar Courtroom has handed over a 14-year-old Hindu minor woman, Kamla Kolhi, to the Muslim youth accused of abducting her.
“Kamla Kolhi, a 14-year-old Hindu minor woman, who was kidnapped from Khipro three months in the past, forcibly transformed to Islam and married off, was produced earlier than the courtroom as we speak. Regardless of the lawyer presenting her B-form (delivery registration doc) as proof of her age, the courtroom prioritised the woman’s assertion and handed her over to members of the Machhi group,” the minority rights activist posted on X.
“This can be very disappointing that, regardless of the presence of the Sindh Little one Marriage Restraint Act and a latest federal regulation which clearly states that marriage and not using a CNIC (Nationwide Id Card) is a felony offence, these legal guidelines aren’t being enforced in follow,” the put up added.