Pakistan: 15-year-old Hindu girl abducted in Sindh

Sindh [Pakistan], October 12 (ANI): A 15-year-old Hindu girl Chanda Maharaj has been abducted from Hyderabad in Sindh on Tuesday.
According to her parents, she was kidnapped from the Fateh Chowk area of Hyderabad when she was on her way back home, reported the Facebook page of Voice of Sindh.
Her father Ammar and her sisters said that she was forcibly abducted by people riding in a white car while coming home from the mill area of Fateh Chowk.
The accused is Shaman Magsi, who always used to harass her on the way, reported Voice of Sindh.
A complaint was filed with the police, however, no recovery has been made yet. According to Voice of Sindh, they have lodged the FIR with the police and SSP Hyderabad is not ready to take action.

The parents of abducted Chanda are worried about their girl’s faith. They don’t know whether their daughter Chanda Maharaj is alive or has been killed. They requested people of Sindh to help them to recover the daughter…!!

Meanwhile, the Voice of Sindh London chapter raised concerns over the series of kidnappings of Sindhi Hindu girls that continues unabashed in the region.
They highlighted forced abductions and conversions in Pakistan. Pakistan’s dilemma of forced conversions and marriages put minority women at risk and the issue of securing rights for minority women has become particularly complex in Pakistan.
Earlier in August 2021, a young Masih girl named Anita was abducted by a Muslim man “Muhammad Waseem” From Yazman City, Bahawalpur.
She said he forcibly converted her to Islam by taking her thumb impression on a paper and forcing her to accept him as her husband. He kept the victim in a locked room and repeatedly raped her, reported local media.
As Pakistan moves in an increasingly conservative Islamist direction, the situation of Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities, especially that of women, is worsening, reported International Forum for Rights and Security (IFFRAS).
In September this year after more than a year of torture, the victim Anita fled from her abductors and filed a petition in the Family Court at Bahawalpur seeking annulment of the False/Forced marriage, according to local media.
The father of the victim said he is very poor and the abductor is a Muslim and very influential. The abductor restricted the victim’s family from filing any complaint regarding the kidnapping of their girl by giving them death threats and they are seeking protection from the court.
The situation faced by the Hindu and Christian groups in Pakistan is bad in general. Still, women from these communities are the worst victims of discriminatory attitudes of the authorities, political groups, religious parties, the feudal structure and the Muslim majority.
Religious minority women and girls are abducted, forcibly converted, forcibly married and abused, and their families are unsuccessful in their attempts to challenge these crimes using legal avenues, reported IFFRAS.
While the abductions, forced conversions, forced marriages and abuse are perpetrated by individuals, the fate of religious minority women and girls is often sealed as the existing laws or handling of such cases deem any legal recourse unavailable or ineffective.
Human rights groups have documented the plight of Pakistan’s religious minorities for years, but it is only recently that these minorities have become the focus of popular discourse because of revelations on social media regarding their treatment, reported IFFRAS.
Abducting for the purpose of forced conversion and marriage is a major issue in Pakistan. Most of the victims are Christian and Hindu girls and young women, forced to wed against their will to much older Muslim men.
The plight of women in Pakistan is increasing day by day as a fresh report has stated that nearly 6,754 women were abducted in the country’s Punjab province in the first half of 2021. Out of that, 1890 women were raped, 3721 were tortured and 752 children were raped, Duniya News reported. (ANI)