Call for justice for Hindu youths attacked in Ghotki

Karachi 

In the wake of killing of a Hindu youh, Satish Kumar, in Ghotki on Wednesday, the Awami Jamhoori Party (AJP) on Sunday held a demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club to condemn rising religious terrorism against minorities in Sindh.

The protesters condemned Dewan Satish Kumar’s cold-blooded murder, instigated by alleged charges of blasphemy committed by another Hindu man. 

Not a single person from the mob that shot dead Kumar and his friend, Avinash, - who was still injured - had so far been arrested by the police.Addressing the rally AJP’s central leader, Advocate Amanullah Shaikh, said some forces were deliberately trying to flare communal fire in the province.

Shaikh said Sindhi society had by and large remained free of religious extremism but religious right was infusing extremism in the province. 

Another rights’ activist Saeeda Gopang, while addressing the protestors expressed surprise over intelligence agencies’ lack of knowledge about the boy’s murderers.

“Targeted in a small town of Mirpur Mathelo, how could the killers still remain at large in such a small local community!,” she observed.

She added that Sindh’s secular and liberal image was being tarnished by such acts and Sindh’s political forces would not sit silent.

We express our solidarity with our Hindu brothers who were real sons of soil, Saeeda further added.

She said such acts were creating insecurity among native Sindhi Hindus, and it seemed as if the authorities wanted the Hindu community to migrate.

Over hundreds of Hindu families had migrated from the area, due to insecurity and forced marriages of their
girls.

Asad Butt, head of Human Rights Commission Pakistan’s city president, social activist Qurrat Mirza, AJP activists Rasheed Sadhayo and Lal Muhammad Chandio also spoke on the occasion.

On July 26, two Hindu youths, Dewan Satish Kumar, 17, and Avinash were sitting at a tea stall in Ghotki when a mob opened fire on them. Kumar succumbed to his injuries while Avinash was admitted to a hospital where he is in a serious condition.

Hindu community leaders said that after the incident, community members in Ghotki and its adjacent areas including Daharki were feeling insecure and many Hindu families had migrated to other towns fearing more attacks. The community leaders complained that violence and discrimination against Hindus had increased in Sindh in recent years.

Gokal Das, an elderly Hindu man was beaten by a police constable in Ghotki for allegedly eating and selling food during Ramazan.