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Published 17 Aug, 2012 08:47pm

Govt urged to protect Hindu community

HYDERABAD, Aug 17: The government should do something to reassure the Hindu community about safety of life and property as their migration to India has gained momentum, tearing apart the fabric of Sindhi society, Sindh United Party (SUP) secretary general Dr Dodo Maheri said at a news conference at the press club on Friday.

“It is a shame that real heirs of the soil are being forced to leave it while outsiders are being settled here,” Dr Maheri said.He said minorities enjoyed rights and were protected under the law across the world, but in Pakistan there was no implementation of such laws, the SUP leader added.

Dr Maheri alleged that parliamentarians were harassing Hindus in Jacobabad and Ghotki, calling upon political and religious parties to raise their voice against injustice being faced by the community.

Kalpana Devi, an advocate, said although Hindus were “real sons of soil” while others came later, they were declared a minority.She recalled that Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah had said in a speech on Aug 11, 1947, that people were free to go to their places of worship regardless of the religion they adhered to.

Ms Devi urged the presidential committee set up recently to address grievances of the minority community to publish its report at the earliest.

“The committee met one Hindu Panchayat leader in Jacobabad and later doled out Rs50 million, 25 jobs and a liquor permit,”she alleged.

She claimed that 200 Hindu families from Ghotki, 500 from Jacobabad and 750 from other parts of the country had left for India over the past few months.

At the same time, Kalpana Devi called upon all such families to return to Pakistan as “migration will not solve your problems”.

She said Hindus looked up to the judiciary for redress of their grievances, but the verdict in the Rinkle Kumari case “hasdisappointed us”.

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