Exiled analysts rue decline of Hinduism in Pakistan's Punjab province

Hinduism in Pakistan's Punjab province has almost finished, said the exiled analyst and writer, Ayesha Siddiqa, who wrote Pakistan Army Inc. exposing the multi-billion business dealings by the Pakistan Army.

Addressing a virtual event on the plight of women in Pakistan, Siddiqa said that it can be clearly seen how their religious (Hindus) narrative is being used in Pakistan.

"The situation of Hindu women in Pakistan is the same as is the case with any other country's minority women. The use of religion is spreading faster here in the country. We can clearly see how their religious (Hindus) narrative is being used in Pakistan," said Ayesha Siddiqa.

Referring to Sindh, she said that the population of Hindu communities has decreased in the Punjab province.

"In south Punjab after 1947, the Hindu population has decreased and only a few families are left in Sadiqabad and Rahim Yar Khan. In Punjab, Hinduism has almost finished," she said.

Another speaker at the event, Sammi Baloch, who has been searching for her father for years, highlighted the issue of the forced disappearances in Pakistan's Balochistan region.

According to the Human Rights Council of Balochistan, during the month of December 2021, more than 63 people were abducted and missing while 37 were killed.

According to the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances, an entity established by the Pakistani government, 8122 cases of enforced disappearances have been registered officially, and most of them are still unresolved.

Independent local and international human rights organizations put the numbers much higher, with 20,000 reportedly having been abducted only from Balochistan, out of which more than 3000 have been killed, with their bullet-riddled bodies, bearing signs of extreme torture, found afterwards.

Human rights group Amnesty International has called upon Pakistani authorities to end the use of enforced disappearances as a tool of state policy, as it releases a new briefing documenting the effect of such illegal abductions on the families of those who go missing.

( With inputs from ANI )