World Sindhi Congress urges UNHRC to hold Pakistan accountable for human rights violation of Sindhi people

Condemning Pakistan over enforced disappearances and persecution of minorities in Sindh, World Sindhi Congress on Wednesday urged the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to hold Pakistan government accountable for the violation of human rights of Sindhi people.

Speaking at the 43rd session of UNHRC on March 11 in Geneva, Lakhu Luhana, Secretary-General of World Sindhi Congress said,” The enforced disappearances of Sindhi people by Pakistani agencies continue unabated in order to ruthlessly silence every voice in the struggle of Sindhi people for their historical, political, economical and cultural rights.”

“In the last three years, more than 300 people have been abducted including renowned political leaders, workers and intellectuals. In the last three days, four more political workers have been abducted. The persecution of indigenous Sindhi Hindus continues relentlessly including forced conversions and marriages of hundreds of Sindhi Hindu girls, mostly minor, attacks on their places of worship and properties and implication in false blasphemy cases,” he said.

Calling on the UNHRC to take action to protect the human rights of Sindhi people and hold the Pakistan government accountable for the violation of their rights, he said,” The last tragic case is of a 15-year-old girl, Mehak Kumari who despite her repeated statements to the court to go with her parents, has been sent to a so-called protection house, in fact, a prison.

All the systems in Pakistan including judicial system have provided no remedy and the perpetrators continue with impunity, therefore, we request the council to take action to protect the human rights of Sindhi people and hold the Pakistan government accountable,” he added.

Mehak Kumari was recently forcibly converted and married to a Muslim man in Pakistan’s Sindh province.

The abduction and forceful conversion of Hindu and Christian girls are widespread in Pakistan. Such incidents have sparked widespread criticism as many victim families are forced the migrate in foreign countries, including India.

Recently, the World Sindhi Congress also held a demonstration in front of the United Nations office in Geneva to raise the issue of the persecution of minorities, especially the Hindus, in the Sindh province of Pakistan.

Another Sindhi political activist, Dua Kalhoro raised the issue of the illegal grabbing of the land of indigenous Sindhi people in Pakistan and said, "We believe that these land-grabbing policies are part of the design to convert Sindhis into a minority in their own motherlands. We request the council to press upon Pakistan to stop these colonial land-grabbing policies which are a great violation of human rights."