KARACHI, Sep 20 : All three Hindu men, who were among five people abducted by riverine bandits in Pakistan’s Sindh earlier this month, have returned home, a media report said here today.
Mukhi Jagdish Kumar, Sagar Kumar, Jaideep Kumar, Dr Munir Naij, and Mushtaq Ali Mumdani were abducted by the bandits earlier in September this year in Kashmore district, Dawn News reported.
Concerned over the incident, local people had staged demonstrations earlier this month to draw the attention of authorities to the recovery of the men.
On September 4, Mukhi Jagdish Kumar and Jaideep Kumar were recovered during a police encounter with the kidnappers.
A day later, Dr Munir Naij was also recovered.
According to the family, a fourth hostage, Sagar Kumar, also reached home in Kashmore on Tuesday night after being held hostage for over a month.
Sagar’s brother, Sunil, said his sibling had reached home, confirming that he was kidnapped on August 9.
“Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kahsmore Rohal Khoso brought him to our house late last night,” Sunil said.
Sunil added that Sagar was unwell and appeared to be suffering from malaria. “I have taken him to the clinic for laboratory tests. He can’t speak for now,” he said.
However, it was not clear whether or not Mushtaq Ali Mumdani, the fifth hostage, was recovered.
Protests over their abduction, as well as increasing incidents of robberies in Sindh, were also held in several other cities in the province on September 3 with the relatives of the victims demanding their early and safe recovery.
Dr Lal Chand Ukrani, president of the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) minority wing in Sindh, said: “We [Hindus] are easy targets.”
“Muslims are also kidnapped but Hindus are an easy target for ransom,” he said.
He said he had raised the matter with former chief minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah and had been in talks with him over the issue before the end of his tenure “because the law and order situation in upper Sindh is very bad, especially in Kashmore”.
Last week, Sindh’s caretaker Chief Minister retired Justice Maqbool Baqar ordered authorities to suspend internet services in katcha (riverine) areas of the province as law enforcement agencies intensified operations against bandits holding people hostage.
The directives from the provincial chief executive had come a day after Sindh’s caretaker law and human rights minister Muhammed Umar Soomro issued a stern warning that any feudal lord or politician found to be associated with dacoits would be subject to legal proceedings.
Separately, the Sindh Human Rights Commission (SHRC) had also written a letter to Sindh Inspector General of Police Riffat Mukhtar and the provincial home department, raising an alarm over their failure to recover the remaining hostages.
The SHRC also conveyed the report of its fact-finding mission sent to the district led by its member Sukhdev Assardas Hemnani to observe a protest organised by the Hindu community and civil society and assess the human rights violations there.
According to a SHRC press release, upon assessment, the commission found growing mistrust of the public in local police with respect to transparency of their operations against the outlaws, under-reported cases, discrepancies in the number of abductees and the overall police cooperation. (PTI)
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