http://www.thefridaytimes.com/news9.htm
Targeting of the Hindus:An alarming increase was seen in attacks directed against the Hindu community, with the persecution directed against them especially in Balochistan forcing hundreds to flee their homes and cross over into Sindh. Three Hindus were reported to have been killed in the town of Chaman after clashes between Hindus attempting to protect their homes and Muslim mobs in October. Temples and homes were set ablaze and property including Hindu shops destroyed as the growing social intolerance assumed alarming new proportions in Balochsitan. In all cases, local extremist groups played a role in triggering the attacks.
Though the precise number of families which fled was unknown, reports suggested almost half the community of 10,000 Hindus in Lasbela had been forced to leave their homes over they year. In almost all cases, the increased activism by militant religious groups imposed new strains on relations between the majority Muslim and Hindu communities, who had lived peacefully alongside each other for many decades.
Forcible conversion of non-Muslims:The efforts to forcibly convert Hindus, especially female school students, had a direct role to play in violence against Hindu settlements. Some of the worst incidents came in Bela, in the Lasbela district of Balochistan, located 500 kilometers southwest of Quetta. In May it was announced by two school teachers that one of their pupils, 13-year-old Rajunati Kumar, had renounced Hinduism and embraced Islam, taking for herself the name Ayesha. The 'conversion' was made public in a phone call made by the school principal to local authorities. Days later, both the girl herself and her family firmly denied the account. Local Muslim clerics however refused to accept this, insisting the child had been forced to renounce her conversion by hr parents and members of her community. Amid the uproar created mainly on the conservative clergy, Rajunati and her family fled to Sindh.
Attacks on places of worship:At least five Hindu temples were vandalised over the year, with their structures damaged and the idols and other objects of worship placed in them broken. Amid the uproar caused by the conversion issue in Lasbela, activists of religious parties on May 19 launched an assault on two old Hindu temples in the area. Idols placed in them were thrown to the ground and an attempt made to set the buildings ablaze. Steps by the district administration against the mob prevented the temples from being set a alight.
A few days later, after authorities refused to take the girl who it was claimed had embraced Islam away from her parents, another temple was attacked in the same area. A new upsurge of violence against Hindus took place in Balochistan in October, in the towns of Dalbandin and Chaman. Accusations that a local Hindu woman in Dalbandin had distributed sweets wrapped in pages of the Holy Quran led to the violence. Despite confirmations by local police and district officials of accounts by Hindu community leaders, that the illiterate woman had not known what was contained in the pages she had used and had believed them to be pieces of paper from her children's textbooks, a temple was ransacked and burnt. Property placed within it had been destroyed earlier. The violence swiftly spread over to the town of Chaman from Dalbandin, where another place of worship was attacked by a mob,. Hindus attempting to protect the temple and the gods placed within it were also injured as a result of the clashes.
Targeting of the Hindus:An alarming increase was seen in attacks directed against the Hindu community, with the persecution directed against them especially in Balochistan forcing hundreds to flee their homes and cross over into Sindh. Three Hindus were reported to have been killed in the town of Chaman after clashes between Hindus attempting to protect their homes and Muslim mobs in October. Temples and homes were set ablaze and property including Hindu shops destroyed as the growing social intolerance assumed alarming new proportions in Balochsitan. In all cases, local extremist groups played a role in triggering the attacks.
Though the precise number of families which fled was unknown, reports suggested almost half the community of 10,000 Hindus in Lasbela had been forced to leave their homes over they year. In almost all cases, the increased activism by militant religious groups imposed new strains on relations between the majority Muslim and Hindu communities, who had lived peacefully alongside each other for many decades.
Forcible conversion of non-Muslims:The efforts to forcibly convert Hindus, especially female school students, had a direct role to play in violence against Hindu settlements. Some of the worst incidents came in Bela, in the Lasbela district of Balochistan, located 500 kilometers southwest of Quetta. In May it was announced by two school teachers that one of their pupils, 13-year-old Rajunati Kumar, had renounced Hinduism and embraced Islam, taking for herself the name Ayesha. The 'conversion' was made public in a phone call made by the school principal to local authorities. Days later, both the girl herself and her family firmly denied the account. Local Muslim clerics however refused to accept this, insisting the child had been forced to renounce her conversion by hr parents and members of her community. Amid the uproar created mainly on the conservative clergy, Rajunati and her family fled to Sindh.
Attacks on places of worship:At least five Hindu temples were vandalised over the year, with their structures damaged and the idols and other objects of worship placed in them broken. Amid the uproar caused by the conversion issue in Lasbela, activists of religious parties on May 19 launched an assault on two old Hindu temples in the area. Idols placed in them were thrown to the ground and an attempt made to set the buildings ablaze. Steps by the district administration against the mob prevented the temples from being set a alight.
A few days later, after authorities refused to take the girl who it was claimed had embraced Islam away from her parents, another temple was attacked in the same area. A new upsurge of violence against Hindus took place in Balochistan in October, in the towns of Dalbandin and Chaman. Accusations that a local Hindu woman in Dalbandin had distributed sweets wrapped in pages of the Holy Quran led to the violence. Despite confirmations by local police and district officials of accounts by Hindu community leaders, that the illiterate woman had not known what was contained in the pages she had used and had believed them to be pieces of paper from her children's textbooks, a temple was ransacked and burnt. Property placed within it had been destroyed earlier. The violence swiftly spread over to the town of Chaman from Dalbandin, where another place of worship was attacked by a mob,. Hindus attempting to protect the temple and the gods placed within it were also injured as a result of the clashes.
Comment