The Inescapable Hurt Locker

By Taha Iqbal

A Hindu student should have ideally written this article. No one should have to silence themselves for fear of being attacked by zealots. No one should have to live in an atmosphere where they fear not only the zealots outside this campus but also their peers on it. No one should have to beg people to listen to the plight of their community. The state exists to protect. It has failed the Hindu community of Pakistan as we have failed our Hindu peers on campus.

On September 14, 2019, a first information report was lodged under Article 295(c) against the principal of the Sindh Public School Mr. Nautan Daas on the complaint of Mr. Abdul Aziz Rajput, who happens to be the father of the student who alleged that his principal had committed blasphemy in videos that went viral online before Facebook graciously decided to take them down. The following day, a mob of true Muslims took upon themselves the responsibilities of judge, jury and executioner. The protesters took to the streets to demand the arrest of the “blasphemer” and called for a shutter-down strike. That those responsible for defaming Islam were held accountable was made absolutely certain of as the protesters proceeded to vandalize a Hindu temple and the school. Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNA Mr. Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, also the head of the Pakistan Hindu Council, alleged that the protesters ended up doing much more damage. According to his count, the protesters vandalized three Hindu temples, a private school and houses belonging to members of the Hindu community.

As often happens in these cases, Muslims from neighbouring areas soon found their conscience as well. Surrounding towns like Mirpur Mathelo and Adilpur also saw demonstrations demanding the arrest of Mr. Nautan Daas, who as of this moment is “safely” within police custody. The police have, to their credit, attempted to do their job. While they failed to protect citizens of the state from being attacked for no other reason than belonging to a specific creed, they have registered three cases against the rioters. The first FIR was filed under Sections 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship, with intent to insult the religion of any class), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object). 45 people were nominated in the FIR, out of which 22 people were named while 23 were listed as unidentified. Another case was lodged against 150 people, 27 named and 123 unidentified, for blocking roads. Lastly, the third FIR pertaining to rioting and theft was filed against 23 people, including 11 unidentified persons, over allegations that protesters had stolen goods from multiple shops in the Shahi Bazar. In the meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan used his investigative expertise to locate the real conspiracy at the heart of this affair: this was intentionally done to sabotage his upcoming address to the United Nations General Assembly.

Earlier this month, Ms. Nimirta Amarta Maher Chandani, a final year BDS student at Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto Medical University, was found dead in her hostel room. The cause of death was initially presumed to be suicide. The findings of an initial autopsy report were inconclusive and members of Nimrita’s family alleged that something far more sinister was at play. Her brother, Dr. Vishal claimed that there were cable marks on Nimrita’s neck and hands, marks that could not be made by the “dupatta” allegedly used by her to commit suicide. Furthermore, he said that he had talked to her fairly recently and everything was as normal as could be. She did not express any signs of distress according to her brother. Civil society and the Hindu community, in particular, were quick to take to the streets. Protests were organised at Teen Talwar (Karachi), Chandka Medical College (Larkana) and Tando Jam Agriculture University. Many demands were made of the powers that be, the most important of which was recently accepted: a judicial inquiry into the incident. The provincial government had initially requested the session court for a judicial inquiry. The session judge then went on to ask the Sindh High Court for permission to grant the government’s request; which was granted on Wednesday.

Both of these incidents are not one-offs, earlier this year two minor Hindu girls were forcefully abducted and converted. One would have to be extremely “thick” to assume that these were rare occurrences. However, one would not be at fault for not knowing the specifics of the oppression that the Hindu community has historically faced and continues to, to this day. According to the US based Sindhi Organisation, 1000 Sindhi Hindu girls between the ages of 12 to 28 are forcefully converted to Islam every year. 40 to 60 Sindhi Hindus undergo forceful conversion every month. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) reported that 7,430 girls were abducted and forcefully converted between January 2004 and May 2018. These figures do not account for all the cases that go unreported because of threats of violence and law enforcement issues.

There is a pattern that keeps repeating itself here. The victims tend to be triply underprivileged in the sense that they are Hindu girls and women who often belong to low-income families. In most cases, the victim is abducted and is then subjugated to sustained emotional and physical abuse often involving threats of violence towards their loved ones. The issue is symptomatic of multi-layered state failure. The state has in the past failed to socio-economically uplift the Hindu community and has kept them from acquiring power that would enable members to protect themselves. Furthermore, law enforcement has failed to protect minority communities and courts have failed to dispense justice for victims. Religious institutions have also allowed girls and women to be converted with relative ease. Lastly, media organisations have failed to hold law-making, law-enforcing, judicial and religious institutions to account for their respective failures.

HRCP reports that the police often turn a blind eye to reports of abduction and forced conversions and thereby create an atmosphere of impunity for perpetrators. The police often either refuse to record a First Information Report or falsify information. FIRs are necessary for taking cases forward and in the absence of those, most cases don’t even get registered. False information makes cases weak and allows perpetrators to win cases even when they get registered. The police forces, which are overwhelmingly Muslim, generally sympathise with the goal of converting religious minorities and therefore actively assist perpetrators. On the rare occasions when police do want to investigate and perform their duties, powerful local leaders exert considerable pressure to prevent any action.

The courts have failed to follow proper procedure as well. As often happens in cases involving religious elements, the judiciary is often subject to fear of violence from extremist elements. Even when this pressure from extremists does not exist, the judges’ personal religious beliefs, ties to the local community and deeply entrenched patriarchal socio-cultural norms influence them into easily accepting claims made by the man that the victim involved converted and married of her own free will. Often there is no investigation and a conversion certificate is accepted as being sufficient evidence of consensual conversion. This obviously ignores the fact that most of the girls involved are under the age of consent and even when they aren’t, are subject to threats that render their consent inapplicable. Worse still, the victim is largely left in the custody of her kidnapper throughout the trial process (as happened in a case involving Mian Mithoo) where she is subject to further threats to force her into denying her abduction and rape and claiming that the conversion was willing.

Religious institutions like local mosques and seminaries, routinely fail to investigate the nature of the conversion or question the age of the bride. Even when they demand proof of age, they are satisfied by a simple affidavit from any member of the locality. These institutions mostly accept the word of the kidnapper and produce a conversion certificate. This is subsequently used by police and the courts to excuse violations or to grant bail. The documentary “Thrust into Heaven” names Sharif Abdul Haq (Mian Mithoo) of Ghotki and Pir Sarhandi of Umerkot as two of the most powerful clerics who facilitate these conversions. Mian Mithoo was involved in the high-profile Rinkle Kumari conversion case in 2012. His “wife” and her family alleged forceful conversion and marriage, especially given the fact that her birth certificate showed she was 16 at the time of marriage. Even after Rinkle begged the Ghotki court to let her go back to her parents, her “husband” was allowed to take her home. Rinkle then went on to repeat her request in the Sindh High Court and the court graciously allowed her to live in a shelter home. After threatening staff at the shelter home, Mithoo’s son who I’ll call Mithoo Jr. (Mini Mithoo was almost used here), met Rinkle. What happened in that conversation doesn’t require Picasso-esque imagination. After this, the Pakistan People’s Party decided it was finally time to let Mithoo go and he was expelled from the party. He had won the previous election in 2008 with 59,000 votes. He lost the 2013 edition by gaining a grand total of 69. Apt innuendo there if you ask me. If only he had spent time campaigning as opposed to converting young children. But, Pakistan is the land of the pure as we all know. So, in 2015, the purest of them all asked Mithoo to join the project of Naya Pakistan. Fortunately, even the PTI has standards and the public outcry at his possible inclusion into the party forced the leadership to drop him. Don’t be happy yet though, he is still an influential religious figure and has immense political power. Unsurprisingly, he was involved in the Ghotki riots mentioned at the start of this article.

The buck doesn’t stop with Mithoo though. The Bharchundi Sharif Shrine is renowned for converting Hindu girls. The Muslim cleric who leads it, Mian Abdul Malik, stated, “there’s no such thing as forced conversions in Islam and in Pakistan.” Similarly, Pir Waliullah Sarhandi, leader of the Sarhandi shrine in the Umerkot district claimed to have converted thousands of Hindu girls and has claimed that “When a girl is brought before a qazi for conversion to Islam, the qazi must comply immediately. If he delays the conversion even to say his prayers, he himself becomes kafir.” Some organisations, like the Minhaj-ul-Quran, actively encourage the practice of converting members of minority communities by offering rewards for successful conversions. They say that it is the equivalent of Haj-e-Akbari, or the greatest religious duty to Muslims.

The Pakistani media contributes to discourse that encourages the conversion of religious minorities by celebrating conversions without investigating the circumstances. Television programmes, especially Ramadan shows hail converts to Islam by interviewing them and inviting them. Sometimes conversions are televised in religious programmes. While I sympathise with the media industry given the vast amounts of freedom it has historically enjoyed in Pakistan, it has been criminally silent on the issue of forced conversions. English-language newspapers reported only 286 cases of forced conversions between January 2012 and June 2017. Bear in mind the fact that approximately a thousand such cases happen every year. Cases often involve influential religious and local leaders who pressure media organisations to not report cases. Reporters do not investigate forced conversions due to fears of violence being committed against them and their families. A little birdy once told me, however, that one of the most important jobs of the media was to hold powerful people to account and inform voters about social and political issues.

It is unfair however to only focus on external media when we have media societies that operate within LUMS itself, especially because the societies and individuals are not as vulnerable to threats of violence as other media organisations and reporters. Search the word “Hindu” on the PLUMS website and you will find six articles. The articles are about the similarities between Pakistan and India, the importance of Jibran Nasir’s electoral campaign, Shia persecution in Pakistan, Basant, Diwali and the Kashmir issue. None of these articles were written by a Hindu student and only one of them (Diwali) puts Hindus at the centre of the conversation. An article not included in this list mentions a request by a Hindu student for a religious room to show why the administration is wrong for removing prayer mats from the Academic Block. This is not to say that PLUMS is an evil organisation, but to point out that our privilege blinds us to the problems of those around us, to the point that sometimes we use their problems to highlight our own. The first step in solving a problem is recognising there is one and the fact that this paper can accept and publish criticisms of itself will hopefully help us take that first step. LUMS is a supposedly safe, liberal and diverse space. If we won’t raise these issues here, how can we expect people on the outside to? No Hindu peer has come up to me to request my aid in their attempt at revolution, all they have asked for is for us to inform our families and friends about an issue that nobody wants to report on. There is another media organisation in LUMS that I will not mention because I have submitted this article to this paper, but if you’re really interested you can try finding something about this issue on their website as well.

We must do more than going to vigils for minority communities in small numbers. We must hold our political representatives to account for their negligence at best and active involvement at worst. We must push for legislative change and we must push for stringent law enforcement. But above all, we must hear members from minority communities. We must listen to them. And when there are no voices to be heard, we must ask ourselves why? We must seek out those voices instead of expecting those voices to come to us. And when we find these voices, we must give them platforms such that their voices are amplified. There are two demands by members of the Hindu community that I am aware of at the moment: inform yourselves and those around you about this issue and help us get our religious space. Let us fight for these. And to the student who helped me write this: God bless you brother, it takes immense courage and bravery to do what you have done and what you continue to do. Mr. Jibran Nasir spoke powerfully at the vigil, but I find fault in his claim that, “hamara rishta Pakistaniyat ka hai”. This gives too much power to those that get to define who is and is not Pakistani.

Hamara rishta Pakistaniyat ka nahin, insaniyat ka hai.

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