In the last five months, more than seventeen girls were abducted and forcefully converted in Sindh. This includes Komal from Tando Allyar, Lakshmi from Karachi, Sonia from Karachi, Sonai Bheel from Hyderabad (Pakistan), Parmeela Mehshwari from Tando, Mala Meghwar from Jam Khan Pitafi, Gaini Kohli from Badin, Lachhmi from Tarai Badin, Reena from Ghotki and Raveena from Ghotki. Systematic persecution of minorities, including Christians, Ahmadiyyas, Sikhs, Hindus through draconian blasphemy laws, forced conversions and marriages, and extra-judicial killings, has become a regular phenomenon in Pakistan.
Forcing these little girls out of their homes into the hands of predators where they are subjected to mental and physical abuse is a downright violation of international humanitarian rights.
This is happening in Sindh, and you might read about that on social media or some newspapers. You guys feel bad seeing the news and perhaps leave an angry reaction.
However, this didn’t start after 1947. Sindhi-Hindus are facing forced conversions, documented massacres, demolition and desecration of temples, and the destruction of the educational center since the 8th Century.
I want to give a 1000 year timeline in this video to remind everyone what our ancestors have suffered and what our brothers & sisters are going through in the Holy Land of Sindhu.
8th Century
The first invasion of the Indian subcontinent began in the early 8th century CE with a Muhammad bin-Qasim-led army. After Raja Dahir was defeated, Qasim’s army started a genocide that is still going on.
What followed was Temple demolitions, mass executions of resisting Sindhi forces, and the enslavement of their dependents; Qasim’s force attacked kingdoms ruled by Hindu and Buddhist kings. The wealth was looted, tribute (kharaj) settled, and hostages were taken, often as slaves to Iraq.
Hindus in Sindh were given a choice to either convert and join the Arab armies or be sealed (tattooing the hands) and pay Jizya (a tax).
12th Century to 15th Century
The Hindus in Sindh are described in 12th-century invader texts as infidels. Routine violence in the 12th Century included forced conversions, mass murders, rapes, and extravagant taxes on Sindhi Hindus that precipitated a great famine with civilian casualties in tens of thousands. Hindu “infidels must on no account be allowed to live in ease and affluence” was the motto of the invaders.
30% of the Hindu population was wiped out. Statistics say, around 90% of knowledge from the Indus Valley Civilisation time was all but gone because the invaders burnt the libraries and mutilated and murdered the Gurus in these 300 years. 90% of 4000-Year-Old History was wiped out in Three Centuries.
15th to 18th Century – Mughals.
Sindh was brought into the Mughal Empire by Akbar where he, temporarily abolished taxes on Hindu pilgrims and allowed Hindu temples to be built and repaired. However, things changed after his death.
His successors were intensifying the game. They forcibly converted many Hindus and killed or drove away all Hindus who would not apostatize. Jizya, a tax on non-Muslims, was reintroduced. Aurangzeb and his northern allies that governed Sindh ordered the desecration and destruction of temples when conquering new lands and putting down rebellions, punishing political leaders by destroying the temples that symbolized their power.
In 1669 he issued orders to all his governors of provinces to “destroy with a willing hand the schools and temples of the infidels, and that they were strictly enjoined to put an entire stop to the teaching and practice of idolatrous forms of worship.”
Around 72% of Sindhi Hindus were converted forcefully in the region. People converted to avoid rapes, murders, and taxes. The current majority in Pakistan’s Sindh were the ones who had forcefully undergone conversions during these 300-years.
Partition of India
It was 1947, and South Asia was on the verge of undergoing a massive change in the landscape. With the help of certain ‘selfish’ political faces, the British government broke India into two pieces, creating modern-day India and a new country, Pakistan.
Hindus, Sikhs, and members of other religious groups experienced drastic dislocation and violence associated with the partition of India. Hindus were among the between 200,000 and two million who died during the rioting and other violence associated with the partition; many of them were Sindhi Hindus & Sikhs.
The 1990s
In the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition, Pakistani Hindus faced riots. Mobs attacked five Hindu temples in Karachi and set fire to 25 temples in towns across the province of Sindh. Shops owned by Hindus were also attacked in Sukkur. Hindu homes and temples were also attacked in Quetta.
The 2000s
In 2006, a Hindu temple in Lahore was destroyed to pave the way for the construction of a multi-storied commercial building. When reporters from Pakistan-based newspaper Dawn tried to cover the incident, they were accosted by the henchmen of the property developer, who denied that a Hindu temple existed at the site.
On 18 October 2005, Sanno Amra and Champa, a Hindu couple residing in the Punjab Colony, Karachi, Sindh, returned home to find that their three teenage daughters had disappeared. After inquiries to the local police, the couple discovered that their daughters had been taken to a local madrassah, had been converted to Islam, and were denied unsupervised contact with their parents.
A survey carried out by All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement revealed that out of 428 Hindu temples in Pakistan only around 20 survive today and they remain neglected by the Evacuee Trust Property Board, which controls those, while the rest had been converted for other uses.
Currently, Hindus in Sindh face “high levels of religious discrimination”, and “legal and social discrimination in almost every aspect of their lives, including political participation, marriage, and freedom of belief.”
