rally calling for the swift recovery of Priya Kumari, a seven-year-old Hindu girl who went missing two years ago, was organized in Sukkur last Wednesday.

A large number of actvists gathered at the Dolphin Chowk and walked to the Sukkur Press Club to record their protest.

Addressing the protestors, human rights activist Azra Jamal said that Sindh was going through “its worst period of disruption,” in which the “… police had conveniently assumed the role of silent spectators.”

The demonstrators carried banners and placards reading “Release Priya Kumari” and “Restore peace in Sindh.” They chanted slogans against religious intolerance and condemned the rising incidence of kidnappings in interior Sindh.

According to activists who also attended the rally, two years have elapsed since the “mysterious disappearance” of Priya Kumari. The police have failed to locate and reunite her with her family.

On August 19, 2021, the child went missing from Sangrar.

The participants of the rally demanded that protection be extended to minorities facing numerous threats, ranging from abduction to forced conversions.

“Priya Kumari, daughter of Rajo Mal, was only seven when she was abducted,” says Mukhi Eshwar Lal Makheja, president of the Hindu Panchayat, Sukkur.

“She was volunteering to serve water to mourners on the tenth day of Muharram when she disappeared,” he added.

“How can a child disappear in the middle of the day?” asked Makheja. “…That too during Muharram when law enforcement agencies including the police, rangers and army personnel, are deployed all over the city to ensure the safety of the mourning procession,” he adds. “A security plan was in place and yet little Priya Kumari got kidnapped.”

Makheja says hundreds of Hindu girls are abducted andforced to change their religion every year.

“The authorities must safeguard the rights of religious minorities and other vulnerable communities,” says the president of the panchayat.

Police say they are looking for the child.

“We are conducting operations in Sindh and Balochistan to recover Priya Kumari,” Sanghaar Malik, the Sukkur senior superintendent of police told a press conference in June.

“An operation is also under way in the Punjab,” added the SSP. “We have detained more than 300 suspects,” he informed the press.

Last year, in March, a Hindu girl was shot in broad daylight in Sukkur allegedly for rejecting the advances of an influential Muslim man. Pooja Oad, 18, was murdered during a failed abduction attempt. The complainant saidWahid Bux Lashari had been harassing Pooja to change her religion and marry him and that she had repeatedly rejected these advances. Eventually, she had told her father about it ad he had brought the matter to the notice of local landlords.

Two weeks later, the girl was shot dead. The complaint says before he killing her in the street, Lashari and his two acomplices, had tried to enter her house. It says he demanded that Pooja marry her and when Oad turned him down one more time, he had shot her, killing her on the spot.

On March 22, the police had arrested Lashari and his accomplices and produced them before a court.

Sindh Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has condemned the lack of specific legislation to protect minority rights.

The commission says that the community is barred from seeking legal recourse when such incidents happen. “Many lawyers in the country refuse to work on such cases because of the fear of being threatened by influential families of the perpetrators.”

The bill on forced conversions is yet to be tabled in the provincial assembly.

The recent upsurge in rights violations has been blamed by some people on the narrative around Seema Rind’s case. The Pakistani Muslim woman apparently fell in love with an Indian Hindu man over the PUBG, an interactive game, and fled to India along with her children to meet him.

According to police sources, a Ghotki-based dacoit, Ranu Shar, was the first to issue a warning to Hindus in this regard, followed by other bandits hailing from Kashmore and Kandhkot.

Attacks on worship places

iolence against the Hindu community extends beyond abduction and forced conversions. Some of their places of worship have also been attacked.

Recently, some bandits launched an attack on Radha Swami Darbar Temple near Ghouspur town of Kashmore district. The robbers reportedly used a rocket launcher, leaving holes in the temple walls.

According to the police, the attackers targeted the residence of a businessman because he had not paid them protection money.

The police said that the temple was adjacent to the businessman’s house.

Members of the community have condemned the attack and demanded that the police take action against desecration of the temple.

On June 22, Mukhi Jagdish Kumar, a representative of the Hindu community was kidnapped along with his 10-year-old son Jai Deep and his driver en route from Kashmore to Badani. "The police have failed to trace them", says Makheja.

The writer is a Sukkur-based journalist who tweets @BismaShamsi