A 17-year-old Hindu girl named Lachmi has reportedly been abducted at gunpoint from her home in Digri, Mirpur Khas distrirct, Sindh province of Pakistan on Tuesday night. According to her mother, Bhoori Kabotri, the girl was taken by Ashiq Khoso along with two accomplices.
Bhoori Kabotri addressed the press at the Digri Press Club the next morning and appealed to the government authorities to take immediate action to recover her daughter. She expressed her deep concern over her daughter’s safety and well-being, and urged the police to take strict action against the perpetrators of this heinous crime.
The incident has caused outrage among the Hindu community in the area, who have demanded that the government take swift action to recover the abducted girl. Members of the community have expressed their fear and concern for the safety of their children and women, as incidents of abduction and forced conversion of Hindu girls have been on the rise in Sindh. The family of the abducted girl is demanding immediate action from the authorities.
Abduction, rape, forced conversion and marriage of minor Hindu girls is a common occurrence in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Most such girls either end up dead, abandoned or trafficked after a few years of ‘marriage’ to much older Muslim men. At least 1000 minority girls suffer such sex slavery every year in Sindh province alone. Apart from this, Pakistani Hindus face systemic and institutionalized persecution and discrimination, such as frequent attacks on Hindu temples, demonization in education curriculum, bonded labor, untouchability, and antipathy of police and judiciary leading to denial of basic human rights.
Sufi dargahs like Bharchundi Sharif in Ghotki district run by the notorious cleric-politician Mian Abdul Haq aka Mian Mithoo and the Sarhandi Dargah in Samaro, Umerkot district run by Pir Mohammad Ayub Jan Sarhandi are centers of such forced conversions – it is alleged that girls taken there are also raped, video-graphed, assaulted and tutored on what statement to give to magistrates if their case ever reaches court.
