Protest held to express solidarity with Hindus after Ghotki violence

Political and civil society activists on Tuesday organised a protest outside the Karachi Press Club to condemn the violence in Ghotki district and express solidarity with the Hindu community.

On Sunday a charged mob had vandalised a Hindu temple and a school owned by a Hindu resident in Ghotki district following the rumour that a Hindu teacher had committed blasphemy.

The participants of the protest organised under the banner of ‘Sindh Progressive Committee’, an alliance of Sindhi nationalist and leftist parties, said the provincial government and the police had failed to protect the religious minorities.

The protesters lamented that attacks on Hindu worship places and abductions, forced conversions and forced marriages of teenage Hindu girls were on the rise across the province.

“It is a conspiracy to destroy the inter-faith harmony in Sindh, which is known for its harmony and diversity,” said a protester. The speakers said that the country’s Constitution guarantees protection to the lives and properties of all the citizens, but the Hindu community still feels insecure due to frequent incidents of violence and kidnappings and forced conversions of their girls. The Awami Workers Party’s central leader Yousaf Masti Khan and the Jeay Sindh Mahaz’s leader Abdul Khaliq Junejo were prominent among the protesters.