World Sidhi Congress urges UNHRC to hold Pakistan accountable for human rights violation in Sindh region
Geneva/IBNS: Targeting Pakistan over enforced disappearances and persecution of minorities in Sindh, the World Sindhi Congress recently urged the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to hold Pakistan government accountable for the violation of human rights of the people belonging to the community.
Lakhu Luhana, Secretary-General of World Sindhi Congress was quoted as saying by DB Post: "The enforced disappearances of Sindhi people by Pakistani agencies continues 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.
Luhana was attending the 43rd session of UNHRC on March 11 in Geneva when he made the comments.
He urged the UNHRC to protect the rights of the Sindhi people.
He mentioned the case of Mahek Kumari's abduction and conversion to Islam and her marriage to a Muslim man in his address.
On 19 February, a Pakistani court declared invalid the marriage of the Muslim man, Raza Solangi to the Hindu girl Mehak because she was a minor. It was also claimed during the hearing that the girl had converted to Islam and married the man out of her own choice, reported Sputnik.
She was allegedly forcefully converted to Islam and married off to a Muslim in the Sindh Province of Pakistan.
Luhana 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."
Apart from Mehak, similar episodes of forced conversion and marriage of girls belonging to other communities, including Sikh, have been reported from Pakistan in recent months.
People belonging to the Sindhi community recently protested in front of United Nations in Geneva to raise the issue of persecution of minorities.
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