In the last few months, several incidents targeting the Hindu minority in the Sindh village of Shaikh Bhirkio and the Tando Allahyar district have surfaced, Bitter Winter reported.
Human rights organisations and activists in Pakistan have called for attention on social media to the case of a 6-year-old Hindu girl nicknamed Ritu (real name omitted for privacy reasons), who was abducted and sexually abused by two 23-year-old Muslim men while she was playing outdoors in the village of Shaikh Bhirkio, Tando Allahyar district in Sindh province.
Ritu was found lying unconscious around six kilometres from her home, In an injured condition, she was taken to the local hospital. Although an arrest has been made, her parents complained that the police had been unsympathetic and uncooperative, Bitter Winter reported.
The village of Shaikh Bhirkio and the Tando Allahyar district has a sizable presence of ultra-fundamentalist Muslims and have been the theatre of several incidents of sectarian violence targeting the Hindu minority.
In February, Muslim thugs attacked the home of a Hindu called Neelo Kolhy with sticks and guns, Bitter Winter reported, adding that they fired at the family and Neelo Kolhy's daughter, Soodhi, was injured.
A First Information Report (FIR) was filed with the police, but again the officers according to Neelo Kolhy were slow to act and uncooperative, Bitter Winter reported.
On October 2022, a 10-year-old Hindu girl of Shaikh Bhirkio called Meena Bajani was kidnapped while she was washing clothes outside of her home, with the purpose of being converted to Islam and married to a Muslim man. The police rescued the girl and placed her in a shelter home.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
