NK International Desk
Pakistan may have strongly condemned the Hindu temple attack, but the incident has caught Pakistan on the wrong foot globally. This incident has armed India with enough steam to drive its claim of Jihadis having a free run in the country. The attack is said to be a sequel to a Hindu boy allegedly doing a blasphemous activity which even the court had pardoned off considering the tender age of the boy.
In that case, what would have happened if the Christians had targeted Muslims living in the US when the September 11 incident happened. There were no incidents of retaliatory attacks on Muslims when churches and nightclubs were bombed by Jihadis in different countries.
Pakistan’s condemnation came only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an unprecedented move, slammed the incident. A Hindu elected member had to show the clippings of the attack to seek police action against the perpetrators. Imran Khan’s statement that the incident is a blot on the nation is a confession that the situation is grim at home. It exposes chinks in the law and order situation of the country as the Prime Minister and the Supreme Court had to direct the police to take action against the fanatics.
Pakistanis should emulate Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia which is promoting a mega Hindu temple in a place which is the holy land of the entire Muslims. This would not only help Saudi to build its image but also earn huge revenue through Hindu tourists visiting the temple.
The damage has been done and it will cost heavily on Pakistan in the coming days. The only way for Pakistan to get rid of Jihadists is to dump its archaic education policy and banning Madrasas and similar institutions which are the epicentres of Jihadi activities.
In a debate in 24 news Malayalam news channel during the widespread protest over Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), well-known lawyer Harish Vasudevan wax eloquent about Pakistan’s constitution and the rights its gives to the minorities including Hindus. According to the young lawyer, the contention that the population of minorities in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has shrunk considerably was unfounded.
Contesting Harish’s attempt to make out that the life of minority Hindus and Christians in Pakistan was hunky-dory, political critic Sreejith Panickar readout United Nations report from his mobile about the atrocities meted out to the minorities in Pakistan and on the need to protect them.
Though it is a fact that the Hindus and Christians in provinces like Sindh in Pakistan lead a life filled with horror, there have been attempts in vain like the one mentioned above to give a secular colour to Pakistan.
According to the data given by Hindu American Federation, an educational and advocacy organization, between 2004 and 2018, there were 7,430 reported cases of kidnappings of Hindu girls in the Sindh province of Pakistan alone. These girls are kidnapped from their homes and forcefully converted to Islam and married to Muslim men twice their age. However, as the matter reaches the court, the girls are forced to tell the court that their wedding was with their consent simply out of fear for their lives and that of their family members.
In this contest, the mob attacking the Lord Ganapathy Temple on Wednesday (August 4)at Bhong city of Rahim Yar Khan district of the province, in protest against the release of an eight-year-old Hindu boy, who was arrested for allegedly urinating in a local seminary, was of no surprise to those who are knowledgeable about minority affairs in Pakistan.But the sheer defiance shown by the Jihadi mob in the mobile phone visuals gave the people across the globe undeniable proof of the dire state of Hindu community and other minorities in Pakistan.
