Pak embassy siege program held in Dhaka

A rally and Pakistan embassy siege program held in Dhaka on Friday protesting violence against Hindus in Pakistan.Presided over by Advocate Sumon Kumar Roy, President of Bangladesh Hindu Bar Association, the program was attended by Shri Kapil Krishna Mandal, General Secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Bangladesh Branch, Subir Kanti Saha, Convener of Hindu Parishad and Dipankar Sikder Dipu, one of the members of Hindu Parishad. Utpal Das, Preeti Bhushan Bhattacharya, Biplob Mistry, Mala Biswas, Advocate Rabindra Nath, Advocate Basudev Guha, Amit Bhowmik, Bilash, Raj, Harinath Sutradhar, Sumon Mandal, Sadhan Das, Shipon Das,  Shyamal Das, Sadhan Kumar Das of Bishwa Hindu Parishad, Badal Saha, Office Secretary, Shyamal Ghosh of Hindu Swechchhasebak Jote, Sanchay Sheel, Gautam Roy, Gavinda Kund, Durjoy Debnath and other activists were also present at the program. 

VHP General Secretary Kapil Krishna Mandal said, "A temple was set on fire and vandalized in the Karak district of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.  Statues of various deities inside the temple were thrown out on road.  Social media has revealed that this was in response to the call of extremist religious leaders, their followers have been hitting the temple with hammer and sickle, while smoke was seen, billowing around the temple." 

"Although the Hindus of Pakistan are outraged by this incident, Imran Khan's administration has not yet taken any action.  Hindus in the area could not protest due to fear.  Pakistan is now slowly becoming a hell for the people of the Hindu community. 

Unspeakable atrocities are being perpetrated on minorities in Pakistan every day including recent killing of 11 Shia Hazaras in a coal mine in Balochistan," he further said. Dipankar Sikder Dipu said that according to various human rights organizations, Hindus living in Sindh province were subjected to severe torture by extremist fundamentalists and women were forcibly taken away and raped.

After abducting minors and young women, they were converted and forcibly marriages were conducted. Imran Khan's administration is fully aware of these incidents but continues to play the role of a silent spectator.  In this way, the Hindu community of Pakistan is slowly sinking into darkness, their way of liberation is not known.  We have not seen any visible trial in this case till date, which is very reprehensible.

Subir Saha said that at least 1000 minors are being raped and converted by force every year.  The trend has been exacerbated by the recent epidemic, with the US State Department listing Pakistan as a country of special concern for religious freedom violations earlier this month. 

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom reports that minors from Pakistan's Hindu, Christian and Sikh communities were forcibly abducted to convert to Islam and forced into marriage and raped, for which no action has yet been taken.  Sadhan Das said that according to Pakistani human rights activists, extremist religious fundamentalists, high-ranking government officials, magistrates and local police were all involved in this cycle of persecution of minorities. 

Advocate Sumon Kumar Roy said Hindus and other minorities in Pakistan have to live as second class citizens.  They have to be discriminated against in every step of life to get accommodation, job, government facilities.  Many members of the Pakistani Hindu community feel that many Hindu families are now being forced to convert to Islam because they cannot tolerate inhuman treatment and torture. 

Members of the European Parliament have recently issued a scathing report on the extreme misery and persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan, according to Christians, Sikhs, Hindus or Ahmadis.  They have shown one example after another from real life, showing how women and children from minority communities are being raped and abducted.  They are constantly being threatened with death. 

At the same time, it has been remarked that the extremist fundamentalist group has been indiscriminately resorting to organized violence, genocide, extrajudicial killings, abductions, rapes or forcible conversions to Islam against these minorities.  Even Pakistan-based international human rights activist Karima Baloch has been targeted by the Pakistani ISI in Canada. She has been killed in a well-planned manner by hired killers.  We strongly condemn this killing.

The International Human Rights Organization (IHRO) also called on the Imran Khan administration to conduct a thorough investigation into all these incidents and ensure that the perpetrators are punished severely under the country's customary law.  I urge all donor agencies, including the European Union, to suspend all financial assistance to Pakistan if the persecution and human rights violations against religious minorities are not stopped, and to ensure equal rights in all areas including the enactment minority protection act in Pakistan.