KARACHI, Oct 1: A total of 143 minority community members — 116 Hindus and 27 Christians — had been kidnapped in the province between March 1, 2008 and Nov 30, 2011, said Sindh Minorities Minister Mohan Lal on Monday.

Of these kidnap victims, 57 were women, he added while responding to a question asked by Pakistan People’s Party lawmaker Saleem Khursheed Khokhar, who belongs to the Christian minority community, during the question hour in the Sindh Assembly.

The house was informed that more than half of these people, 76 to be specific, had been kidnapped in urban areas. Forty three of them had been abducted in Hyderabad and 33 in Karachi — 19 in the district east, nine in the south and five in the district west, the data showed.

Naushahro Feroz, Sanghar, Tando Mohammad Khan, Tando Allahyar, Malir and central district of Karachi were the six districts where no minority community member had been kidnapped over the three and a half years, according to the data tabled by the minister in the assembly.

While 20 out of 33 people abducted in Karachi had been safely recovered, the status of 43 people kidnapped in Hyderabad was not available.

About the 57 women victims, 19 were Christians and 38 were Hindus, the data showed.

Five out of six questions mentioned in the order of day were asked by Mr Khokhar, while no supplementary question was asked. The sixth question was to be asked by PML-F lawmaker Nusrat Seher Abbasi, but Speaker Nisar Khuhro did not allow her to ask the question as she along with some other legislators were sitting on the floor of the assembly to lodge their protest against the Sindh People’s Local Government Ordinance (SPLGO 2012) bill that was tabled in the assembly and passed on Monday.

The question hour began over 1 hour and 45 minutes behind the scheduled time of 10am as printed in the order of the day and was completed shortly afterwards.