Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has taken notice of the latest incident of the abduction, forced conversion and marriage to the abductors of two Hindu teenaged girls from Sindh. This is hardly the first case of this kind. Over the years, and particularly the by now decades old rise and rise of religious fundamentalism, such cases are regularly reported. Sindh has the largest concentration of Hindu citizens, therefore it is no surprise that the overwhelming majority of such cases emanate from there.
PM Imran Khan has ordered the provincial governments of Sindh and Punjab (where the two girls have reportedly been taken) to carry out an investigation into the case, according to Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry. This statement of the worthy minister followed a twitter exchange between him and Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj after the latter asked the Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad for a report on the case. Had Fawad Chaudhry confined himself to a defence of the constitutionally guaranteed status of equality for all citizens of Pakistan irrespective of their faith, it would have been appropriate. But the minister being the minister, he had to drag in the very criticism of India vis-à-vis its treatment of religious minorities, especially Muslims, which he was objecting to on Swaraj's part as being an internal matter of Pakistan. Admittedly, there is much room for criticism of the treatment being meted out to Muslims in India under the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) rule. But if we are honest, we have to confront the fact that religious minorities in Pakistan too suffer from 'othering', discrimination, and worse.
The facts of the instant case of two Hindu girls named Reena and Raveena appear to be that they are underage, 14 and 16 years to be exact. They have been abducted from Ghotki in Sindh and brought, at least initially, to Rahimyar Khan in Punjab. Subsequent reports have muddied the waters further by suggesting that they are now elsewhere in Punjab (perhaps Gujranwala) but yet to be traced. The two girls are the daughters of Hari Laal of the Hindu Maighwal community. A recent widower, the father and his son have lodged an FIR against the abduction at a police station in Ghotki. However, after a video emerged on social media showing the two girls with two young men (presumably the ones they have married) and a cleric, saying they had chosen to convert and marry their presumed abductors of their own free will, the police seems to have reverted to its normal practice in such cases of relying on such doctored videos to turn a blind eye to the crime.
One person has been arrested by the police, but it is not clear what is his role in the affair. The cleric who solemnised the marriages may or may not have been picked up at the time of writing these lines. One name that keeps popping up in such incidents is that of Mian Abdul Haq, known as Mian Mithoo, who has gained a great deal of notoriety in being involved in forced conversions of Hindu girls, especially in Thar, Sindh. How and why he cannot be held accountable is one more of the countless anomalies of our justice system.
Civil society activists protested in Karachi against the abduction, forced conversion and marriage of these two young girls, but it remains to be seen if such protests carry any weight in the corridors of power. Nevertheless, such voices, weak as they may be, reflect the conscience of an otherwise tragically indifferent society to the travails of the religious minorities in our country. In past such cases, if and when they did come to court, neither is there a strong record of reversing the abductions, etc, nor any punishment of the perpetrators. Now we hear that another underage Hindu girl Shania too has been abducted from Mirpurkhas, Sindh, in further defiance of the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act that forbids the marriage of any person under 18 years of age.
Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, the head of the Pakistan Hindu Council and a prominent figure in the PTI government (having joined the party just before the 2018 elections) has stated his intent to move a condemnatory resolution on the matter in the National Assembly. It would be something positive if the government and opposition came together to legislate on restriction of underage marriages and protection in particular of young Hindu girls who otherwise seem condemned to suffer this fate for the foreseeable future. But legislation, as we know in the case of other social ills, is not enough. The culture and mindset of state officials and institutions, particularly the police and lower courts, will have to undergo a radical re-education in this matter before they can fulfil the demands of justice.
The exchange between Fawad Chaudhry and Sushma Swaraj points to one of the tragedies afflicting both countries: they are unable to escape the prison of history. Partition has left so many wounds and scars on the body politic and society in both countries that neither are able to posit issues that afflict their societies, particularly where minority rights are concerned, in an enlightened, mutually reinforcing manner without descending to point scoring. We here constantly bemoan our departures from the principles laid down for Pakistan by Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, but are constantly guilty of violating those principles day in and day out. The rights of the religious minorities were a cardinal point of the Quaid's principles. Have we done justice to his legacy in this regard?
The reason the answer to this question is in the negative is because we have allowed half-baked, virtually illiterate maulvis to hold state and society hostage to their antediluvian agendas. Pakistan (and India) needs a concerted campaign of awareness raising and combating the myriads of ways in which our religious minorities feel insecure, threatened and second-class citizens. Otherwise the parade of underage Hindu girls being forcibly converted and married off is unlikely to end, to our shame and sorrow.
rashed.rahman1@gmail.com
rashed-rahman.blogspot.com