Ronik Sharma
The Hindu minority community in Pakistan continues to face explicit discrimination and repression from the state, depriving them of their basic Human Rights. The crimes committed against Pakistani Hindus since the country’s independence have been unrelenting, forcing young girls to be converted to Islam as well as forcing Pakistani Hindu-Sikh minority families to relocate. The international organisations that monitor human rights abuses have not only failed to grant common fundamental rights to the Hindu-Sikh minorities in Pakistan so they can live in peace and tranquility but also failed to safeguard these minority community members. With the active connivance of the Pakistani establishment, administration, the Muslim clergy in Pakistan regularly commits crimes against Hindus and other minorities. In Pakistan, there is turmoil against the Hindu minorities due to the burning of numerous sacred places, including temples, and the forceful occupation of other locations, but no one is to blame.
The fundamentalist forces in Pakistan destroyed thousands of Hindu temples, yet no one was held accountable for inciting this violence and harming Pakistan’s minority population. As a result of these violent incidents, forced conversions, kidnappings and murders against Hindus in Pakistan, the proportion of Hindu minority has dropped to a mere 2 – 3 percent from roughly 20 – 25 percent at the time of the independence and after partition in 1947. Young teenage Hindu girls are being taken against their will from their families, trafficked to distant places, forced into marriages with men who are often twice or three times their own age, and coerced to convert to Islam. Human rights watch has failed to take strict action in response to these blatant violations of human rights, even though all of these incidents are violations of international human rights legislation. Human Rights Watch is not only a silent observer in this regard but it has also failed to take decisive action against these blatant violations of human rights. After numerous cases of targeted killings of innocent minorities, Pakistani establishments failed to enhance the security of religious minorities for more than seventy years. The heinous extent of religious hatred for a particular Hindu minority community in a nation that appears to be failing to ensure the safety and security of religious minorities overall is demonstrated by the targeted killings of Hindu minorities in different parts of Pakistan. In every nation, the state has an obligation to safeguard the right to life by taking all appropriate preventive actions, including in situations where private individuals have committed crimes.
The authorities are bound by national as well as international human rights law, which mandates that nations safeguard the existence and identity of religious minorities, if they fail to take the necessary actions to stop, look into, and punish such crimes. More violence and physical attacks on Hindus have resulted from the growth in religious extremism in Pakistan. The number and condition of ancient Hindu temples in Pakistan have drastically declined since the partition in 1947. There have been numerous attacks on ancient Hindu temples, pilgrimage sites of Hindus, and the government does little to stop the violent attacks or protect the sacred places of the minority community people. As a result, anti- Hindu attitudes frequently erupt against the Hindu population in Pakistan. Several times, mobs of angry men (fundamentalist) belonging to a particular community broke into these temples, smashing the idols of Hindu gods and goddesses, taking the jewels off of them, and taking the donation boxes with them. Pakistan’s mainstream media obscures violence against Hindu minorities and other minorities, but social media reports are repeatedly documenting the bloody reality facing the people of Pakistan, especially Hindu minorities. Millions of rupees worth of damages were caused by the burning or looting of several Hindu temples, including their shops. Non-Muslims, mostly Hindu minority families, were subjected to various forms of violence and abuse; enraged mobs broke into their homes, destroying furniture and other household items and stealing jewellery and all other belongings, including savings. Old and infirm women and children of Hindu minorities were also targets of physical assaults.
The Hindus in Pakistan are unable to preserve or restore ruined and decaying ancient Hindu temples and scriptures because successive governments in the Islamic country, i.e., Pakistan, have not only failed to protect Hindu temples or settlements or to stop the marginalisation of Hindus in Pakistan, but they have also failed to increase security measures and to end state-sponsored discrimination and repression, so that the Hindus of Pakistan may not remain deprived of their fundamental human rights. Pakistan is a safe haven for many wanted fugitives, extremists, heads of terrorists, and terrorist organisations who operate freely throughout the country, promoting Islamic rule, violent jihad, and hatred towards non-Muslims (non-believers in Islam). In Pakistan, educational institutions, run by government, private or other Islamic institutions non-believers in Islam are treated as enemies of Islam. These educational institutions teach hatred towards Hindus and other religious minorities for their non-belief in Islam. The heads of terrorist outfits, along with Islamist extremists and their representatives, foster an intolerant environment and have great influence over the Pakistani establishment, holding a firm grip on power.
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