Members of Pakistan’s Hindu community protest forced conversions
The Hindu
The protesters carried placards and banners which urged the government to pass a stalled bill against the forced conversion of Hindu girls and women.
Several members of Pakistan's minority Hindu community held a protest march here to draw attention to the menace of forced conversions and marriages of Hindu girls and women in the country.
The protest outside the Karachi Press Club and at the entrance of the Sindh Assembly building on Thursday was organised by Pakistan Darawar Ittehad (PDI), a Hindu organisation.
“We wanted to highlight this big problem facing the Sindhi Hindus, especially in the rural areas where our young girls, some as young as 12 and 13 are abducted in broad daylight, forced to convert to Islam and then married off to older Muslim men,” a member of the PDI said.
He said the protest on Thursday had left some impact as many people were not even aware of this crime but admitted they were expecting a bigger turnout.
The protest went off peacefully with a large number of policemen standing at a distance from the protesters.
The protesters carried placards and banners which urged the government to pass a stalled bill against the forced conversion of Hindu girls and women.
In recent months there has been a surge in such cases in interior Sindh with the lower courts flooded with applications from affected parents seeking justice and the return of their daughters, sisters and wives.