Pakistan: Hindu Panchayat stages protest over abduction of toddler

Islamabad [Pakistan], May 29 : The Hindu Panchayat of Pakistan's Kandhkot-Kashmore district staged a protest in Jacobabad and Ghotki districts on Sunday over the abduction of a three-year-old boy, Dawn reported.

Dawn is a Pakistani English-language newspaper.

The protest drive, which started three days back, sparked off demonstrations in neighbouring districts.

Earlier, the boy, named Samrat Kumar, had gone missing from a locality, Mirzapur, in the Kandhkot-Kashmore district eight days ago. When police failed to trace his location, the Hindu community along with the affected family held demonstrations in the area over the next five days.

His family told the police that dacoits riding a motorcycle had kidnapped the boy for ransom and taken him away into the gangs-infested riverine area, according to Dawn.

On Friday, the Hindu Panchayat set up a protest camp at the Ghanta Ghar Chowk in Kandhkot to pressurise the police and provincial government to get the boy recovered safely.

Over the last two days, a large number of activists belonging to various nationalist groups and civil society organisations joined in the protest at the camp to express solidarity with the victim's family and the Hindu community.

Meanwhile, the Panchayat leaders condemned the area police for their failure in checking gangsters' activities in upper Sindh where, they noted, criminals were kidnapping men, women and children at their whim and killing their hostages. The gangsters were attacking and looting commuters without any fear, they said.

They appealed to the Sindh government and higher police authorities to take effective measures to protect the life and property of citizens, reported Dawn.

They said all hostages, including Samrat Kumar, held by the gangs should be safely recovered and complete peace be restored in upper Sindh districts.

In Pannu Aqil, a large number of PPP-Shaheed Bhutto took out a rally and raised slogans for the recovery of the kidnapped toddler and other hostages.

In Jacobabad city also, PPP-SB activists held a similar rally, which was addressed by the party's chief organizer Noor Mohammad Manjhu, Babul Khan Korejo, Abdul Sami Soomro, Riaz Lashari, Shahzad Soomro and others.

They deplored that police had miserably failed in establishing the writ of law in Sindh while the provincial government seemed helpless in checking dacoit gangs' criminal activities, as per the report in Dawn.