On Tuesday, an 18 year old girl has been shot dead in Pakistan's Sindh province after resisting to an attempt of abduction, reported the news agency ANI. The girl was identified as Pooja Oad and reportedly she has been shot in the middle of the street in Rohi, Sukkur after resisting to the attackers, quoted ANI as The Friday Times newspaper reported.
In the land of the pure where every day Hindu, Christian daughters are lost to abductions, forced conversions, marriages and Pakistan continues to be a bystander. Pooja Kumari Odh, an 18-year-old shot dead by Wahid Lashari on resisting abduction, conversion in Sukkur, Sindh. pic.twitter.com/7Yo6DQdp9R
— Naila Inayat (@nailainayat) March 21, 2022
Forced Conversions into Islam
As said by the human rights activists, in Pakistan hundreds of Christian and Hindu girls are forced to convert to Islam every year. Women who belongs to minority communities are regularly abducted and converted into Islam forcibly. Also, the country's minority communities have been facing the issue of forced marriages and conversions.
Multiple rights organizations have blamed the Pakistan government of not making any moves against the rising issue of crimes against Hindus and other minorities.
Prior to this, the provincial government in Sindh had attempted to ban forced conversions and marriages. Nonetheless, strict protestors challenged the bill, expressing that young ladies only convert subsequent to falling in love with Muslim men.
HIndu population in Pakistan
In Pakistan, the overall population of the Hindu community stands at 1.60 per cent, and 6.51 per cent in Sindh, as per the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
In 2019, the case of two sisters named Reena and Raveena has garnered the nation's attention, as their family claimed that the girls were married when they were just minors. Later, to the Islamabad High Court, the girls said that they did it intentionally.