Turn on the TV. There is breaking news about a 16-year-old girl who has gone missing. A few hours later, we learn that the abductors have contacted the missing girl's parents. The abductors, according to the news anchor, maintain that the girl was not kidnapped. We're told the girl ran away and converted to another religion. No wait -- she ran away, converted to another religion, has a new name, and is now married -- all in less than 24 hours. Difficult to imagine? How about if I ask you to rewind and hit 'Play' once a day, every day, knowing that with each replay, it is another cherished daughter of a new set of parents who has gone missing? Would you sit there and do nothing? What if I tell you that this isn't at all difficult to imagine for Hindu and Christian families in Pakistan? This tragic story is their story -- the only difference being that it rarely makes news.
According to the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), every month some 20 to 25 girls are forcibly converted to Islam in the Sindh province of Pakistan alone. These forced conversions are usually in conjunction with kidnapping and forced marriage. If they are not married off to complete and often times, far older strangers, they are beaten, maimed, raped, gang-raped, sold off or thrown into prostitution.
Thus, Hindu, Christian, Sikh and Ahmadiyya families throughout Pakistan live with the constant fear of their daughters (or wives) being snatched. All too frequently, families choose prophylactically to curb the freedom and movement of the females in their respective households, thereby perpetuating a whole other cycle of problems related to illiteracy and financial dependency. When the fear becomes a dreaded reality, families must live with the fact that they will be helpless in securing their loved ones' safe return. If families aren't threatened to leave things be by the politically-connected gangsters and heads of madrassas who orchestrated the kidnapping and forced conversion, they will be intimidated by the police for trying to seek justice. And in the far chance that they're able to gain a sympathetic ear of the police, the police are, in turn, bullied by those same politicians, gangsters and heads of madrassas.
At the Hindu American Foundation, we have worked for nearly a decade to give voice to the especially dire plight of Hindu and other minority girls in Pakistan. Dishearteningly, when we have brought the issue up to policy-makers, highlighting the billions in aid the U.S. doles out year after year and the unchanging and grim situation of minority and poor Pakistanis, far too often the response has been that this issue is not one which they are willing to touch for fear of disturbing our military interest in the region. In the past few months, however, the almost daily occurrence of kidnapping and forced conversion has finally made it onto the radar screen of the international media. Maybe media exposure will translate to public pressure, forcing our government and the Pakistani government to act? One can at least hope.
In Oct. 2011, the Daily Mail, a UK-based media outlet, covered the frightening case of a 12 year-old Christian girl for whom a shopping trip to the Pakistani city of Lahore with a friend turned into nothing less than a living nightmare. The girl's "friend" was part of the kidnapping plan and lured the young Christian to her kidnappers who took her to a village more than 100 miles away. There she was beaten for refusing to convert to Islam, raped, and forced to sign papers that married her to her rapist. Then for the next eight months, she was repeatedly raped by the rapist who was, at least on paper, her "legal husband," as well as others. Short of a year of captivity, this brave little girl managed to escape and immediately called her parents to save her.
According to an AHRC investigation, the parents had reported her missing in January 2011. Clearly, little was done by the police to find her because it wasn't until nine months later that the parents ended up rescuing her themselves. They took their daughter directly to the local magistrate to record an official complaint. Instead of initiating any medical exams for the victim or taking steps to bring the perpetrators to justice, local law enforcement threatened the parents with criminal charges for refusing to return their daughter to her "legal husband" -- never mind that the official age to legally marry in Pakistan is 16. Links between the "legal husband" and the terror group, Lakshar-e-Taiba, have been reported and probably have something to do with the police's complicity. Today the perpetrators continue to roam the streets freely and the family has been forced into hiding.
In the past two months, the case of Rinkel Kumari also made international headlines. The 19-year-old went missing in mid-February. The kidnappers, associates of influential local politician Mian Abdul Haq, alias Mian Mithhoo, of the Pakistan Peoples Party of the National Assembly, abducted Rinkel at the crack of dawn from her home. She was dragged away to a madrassa headed by Mian Mithhoo. According to the ACHR, this madrassa, Dargah Aalia Qadria Bharchoondi Sharif, is known well in Sindh province for converting Hindu girls and has openly touted its goal of converting 2000 Hindus to Islam every year.
Rinkel's parents received a call within hours from Mian Mithhoo informing them that Rinkel had "willingly" left their home, "come" to his madrassa, "embraced" Islam, and was now married to a man by the name of Naveed Shah. Upon receiving the news, the family tried to lodge the equivalent of a missing persons complaint with the local police. First the police refused, but after mounting public pressure from the Hindu community, they were forced to respond.
At the first hearing on Feb. 25th, the court was flooded with rifle-toting supporters of Mian Mithoo, Mian Mithoo himself and his associates. Nearly drowned out by the chants from the galley of "Allah hu Akhbar" (Allah the Almighty), Rinkel tearfully testified that she wanted to live with her parents and that she had only accepted Islam and married Shah to protect her family from the death threats made by her abductors. Instead of being moved by Rinkel's story, the judge postponed the hearing till the next day and Rinkel was placed in police custody. There she was, according to media accounts, tortured, bullied about remaining Muslim and married, and possibly raped.
The next day, the hearing was pushed up from 11 to 8 in the morning without notice to Rinkel's family; Rinkel's family and the Hindu community were denied access to the courtroom; and Rinkel, before a court brimming over with Pakistan Peoples' Party supporters, was judged to have married and converted to Islam of her own will. Mian Mithhoo and his associates crowded the streets in celebration -- holding a press conference to boast of their religious victory and conquest over Hindus.
On March 12th, the Supreme Court of Pakistan intervened and combined the case of Rinkel with two other cases of alleged kidnapping-forced conversion (Asha Kumari, a teenager, and Dr. Lata, age 29) on the petition of the Pakistan Hindu Council. At the first Supreme Court hearing, Rinkel cried out that she would rather die than be placed back in the shelter and wanted to go back to her parents; Dr. Lata asked to have time to talk to her father. Both requests fell on deaf ears. Rinkel and Dr. Lata were placed in a government women's shelter to mull over their future for three weeks without "outside pressure."
On April 18th, the Supreme Court issued its decision -- all three were old enough to decide their own fate. That the girls were kidnapped, forcibly converted, married under threats of harm and death to themselves and their family, and likely beaten, raped and tortured by their abductors or while in custody, didn't seem to concern the high court. And in continuance of the cases' kangaroo court process, the girls' alleged "wishes" to be returned to their "husbands" were recorded, not in open court, but behind closed doors.
Just this past weekend the LA Times covered another kidnapping story -- the story of Rachna Kumari. Rachna, a 16-year-old, was kidnapped last August in broad daylight by a police officer. Not only is this particular case disturbing and frustrating because of position of the perpetrator, but also because the family knew the officer well. Rachna's father is a priest of a small Hindu temple which the police officer was assigned to protect. After Kumari's family filed a complaint, the first time they were allowed to see their daughter after her abduction was in court. There she appeared in a black head to toe burqa, surrounded by nearly 100 supporters of the police officer and now "husband." In court, she submitted a written statement that she had willingly converted and married her abductor. A month after the hearing, Rachna managed to sneak away while out running errands with her new female relatives and went to her grandmother's for water. When asked why she left, she cried that she had been forced to do so. While he was temporarily placed on probation during the court proceedings, Rachna's abductor is back on the beat and recently reported his young wife "missing." Meanwhile, Rachna's parents have pulled Rachna's 13-year-old sister out of school and do not let her out of their sight.
Indeed, increased media attention is a start to increasing public awareness and pressure, but when are freedom-respecting citizens of the world and, especially those in Pakistan, going to step up to the plate and end this terror? How many Rinkels and Rachnas will have to face a life stripped of dignity and freedom of conscience? How many families are going to have to lose their cherished daughters to physical, psychological and religious violence? For now, we can at least stand up and speak out against our tax dollars going towards subsidizing a government that doesn't value the dignity, innocence, and aspirations of its Hindu and Christian daughters. And because we can, we must.
Chris Fici: Why Being a Hindu Has Made Me a Better Catholic
Hinduism in Pakistan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pakistan: Fabled pond in Hindu temple runs DRY - Rediff.com News
Hindus in Pakistan accuse Muslims of kidnapping women as wives ...
If my posting caused any "pain" OR, if I touched your painful "nerve" - kindly accept my sincere apologies. A mirror DOES NOT project a wrong image - unless it's defective.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/873170.aspx
Here is another BBC News report describing unfair targeting of minorities inside India:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-18437567
This is another report right from Yahoo News about a famous Indian Swami - Nityananda. Read this:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/controversial-guru-nityananda-police-custody-115901385.html
Now, this is an undeniable fact about targeting minorities and custodial deaths:
http://twocircles.net/2012jun15/hunted_india.html
This is another report about "so-called" Maoist insurgency - that GOI (Government of India) is targeting to kill indigenous people of Eastern region of India:
http://tehelka.com/story_main53.asp?filename=Ne160612Who.asp
I hope, Huffington Post publishes my comment, as I believe facts and myths are there for readers to decide.
I hope - Suhag A. Shukla and/or commentators know about 2009 Deepavali Celebrations in Goa that were targeted by Hindutva goons. This news is about Hindus targeting innocent Hindus in India. Here is a news-report from a leading Indian newspaper The Hindu:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article35492.ece
Remember, pointing one finger at others - the Creator automatically directs three fingers at accuser. Apart from this, there are so many social ills to-date prevalent in India - although outlawed but still in practice. Watch TV Episodes of "Satyamey Vijaytey" and you will realize.
Concerned
It's like the old saying, "What's Mine is Mine, What's Yours We Share"
The case of these three girls went all the way to Pakistan's Supreme Court. These girls claimed all the way through that they were being hounded by their families and that's the only reason they went into hiding. All these Hindu girls are educated and belong to influential families of Urban Sindh. They have all held press conferences and appeared in numerous talk show all available on YouTube and said they married and converted to Islam out of their own free will.
The author of this article, for the sake of fairness, should have also mentioned that the Chief Justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court himself talked to all these girls in private to ask them if they were under any pressure to say what they were saying. This is totally unprecedented, yet we have these Pakistan bashes making a mountain out of a non-issue. The girls are all adults and they married out of their free will. End of story!
I commend you for your efforts to bring the ongoing horrors inflicted on Hindu and Christian girls in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the attention of the world. However, the Western multicultis who frequent HuffPost will not give a damn since they are infatuated with their Muslim pets and will ignore anything that challenges their "Islam means peace" meme.
This article has attracted a grand total of 13 comments, roughly 1/3 of which are from Pakistanis defending what is happening in Pakistan. Had this article been about Jewish settlers who looked the wrong way at a Muslim girl, there would have been 10,000 comments decrying the inhumanity of Jews.
The West is now financially and spiritually bankrupt, and it is addicted to oil from OPEC so they will do what their Saudi masters tell them to do. Heck, they do nothing to stop Wahabbi poison from spreading in their own countries - why would they care about what is happening to us?
The motto of the IRA was "Sinn Fein" which can be translated loosely as "we, with our own strength." Sinn Fein.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article35492.ece
If Hindus are targeting and killing Hindus, then we can well imagine what the fanatics are capable of doing and have done with minorities in India.
Concerned
I wish it were the case but it isn’t. Nowhere during the process the girls were given a free choice neither a chance to meet with their families which they were dying to. Supreme Court really played into the hands of the extremists and did the deed for them, as would be expected for the Islamic state. Mian Mitha the religious figure and the Member of Parliament who openly gave death threats to the girls if they said they were not Muslim, on national TV, was freely allowed into the Supreme Court instead of being arrested for making death threats. This makes it plenty clear how much the Supreme Court in Pakistan respects the very law that it is supposed to protect when it comes to religious extremists.
I hope most readers know "Aamir Khan's" latest TV Serial "Satyamey Vijaytey" that's highlighting many many evil social practices prevalent in India to-date. Sometimes, I wonder why the majority community ACCEPTS these "prevailing social evils" that's eroding India from within. There is no outside influence on these, but I would definitely like to question - WHY IS THE MAJORITY SILENT on these EVIL SOCIAL PRACTICES ???
Concerned
First fan, seventh favorite.
We also had a notorious SANDALWOOD BANDIT in southern India known as "Veerappan". We also had a famous BANDIT QUEEN - Phoolan Devi. Bollywood movies have been on lives of these well-known bandits.
I would "seriously doubt" whether Muslims of those days even supported the LOOTERS' acts. On the contrary, Indian Muslims fought for independence from British - and this is a well documented fact.
If "JayN" or other readers do question the issue of "partition", then I would advise them to get hold of Jaswant Singh's novel "Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence" where he praised Jinnah. And for this reason he was temporarily expelled from Bhajpa.
Mahatma Gandhi knew the fact of LUST by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (backstage playboy) very well. Nehru coined the idea of partition as he had LUST of becoming the First Prime Minister of independent India. Nehru knew pretty well that it would be DIFFICULT, if NOT IMPOSSIBLE to defeat Jinnah as Prime Minister of independent India. Hence the partition, because of this conflict.
Concerned
It takes a lot less than 24 hours to run away, convert and change your name. In the United States it takes just a few minutes to get married by the justice of the peace in most states. He merely has to say, "I hereby declare you man and wife." Changing your name, too is a matter of declaration.
In the case of conversion to another religion, it always depend upon whom you believe. The family always says that the conversion was forced. They would, wouldn't they? What else woudd they say?
But if the supreme court allows the woman to choose and assures her that it (the supreme Court) will not allow anyone to hurt her, and the woman chooses to be Muslim, a forced conversion is difficult to prove.
Force can only make someone say that they believe, it can never make them believe.
.. Unless one loses his/her mind in the process as most Muslim women have and then it really does not matter what one does or doesn't believe any way :(
Also, this report is written by Suhag Shukla, Esq. and not by Dr. Aseem Shukla ji.
Minor stuff but still important.