Pakistan Police Are Of No Help To Hindu Kidnap And Rape Victims

It's not a good thing to be a Hindu, or any other minority for that matter, in Pakistan. It's especially difficult for a female. When they get raped or kidnapped, or both, the police rarely do anything about it. In some cases, to add insult to injury, the rape victims are often asked to marry their rapists and convert to Islam. That's what happened to one 17-year-old Hindu girl this past year, after she had been kidnapped and gang raped by four men.

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Muhammad Ali, head of the NGO Roshni Research and Development Welfare Organisation (RRDWO), claims that extensive research has proven that most minorities get the shaft when it comes to criminal cases they have filed. The police make little or no effort to investigate or search for the criminals involved. And the letter of the law is often ignored when it comes to minorities. The four rapists apparently were granted bail prior to their arrests.

"Rape is a non-bail able offence in Pakistan and this is against criminal procedure and the law," The Daily Times quoted Ali, as saying.

Ali said the Asian Human Rights Commission has also expressed its serious concern over the case.

"Instead of giving justice to the victim's family, the police later arrested the victim's father on a false offence, and have obstructed attempts by the family to file an FIR and obtain a medical report," he added.

Ali also disclosed that an 'illegal' tribal court had asked the victim girl to marry her rapist and convert to Islam following which the girl had threatened public self-immolation.

"Not arresting the rapists and rather forcing a Hindu girl, who is a rape victim, to convert to Islam and be the wife of the culprit could be double trauma for the victim. It is another form of further victimising a woman," he said.

Forcing a girl to marry her rapist and convert to another religion is not fair restitution, aside from the illegality and immorality of it. These men should be prosecuted and jailed. And how stupid can the courts get. A woman who has been raped is going to hate her rapist forever, and actually thinking marriage will change that is ignorant. It's a recipe for disaster. And punishing a man for raping a woman by having him marry her, rather than being sufficiently punished for such an heinous act of violence, is just going to encourage others to rape. Isn't rape an abomination in the Quran?

Then there's the case of Nandini, a Hindu 12-year-old, who was abducted last December. She is still missing

.. after four months of her being allegedly picked up by an influential individual of the city.

Officials have no information regarding Nandini's whereabouts, who was kidnapped in December last year, and the accused named Younis has not been arrested despite the fact that there is a first information report (FIR) registered against him.

Apparently this happens all the time: Hindu families can only grieve for their loved ones, because officials will do absolutely nothing to help, and they have little if any recourse.

Several Hindu families, which are at the receiving end of the government's apathy, are awaiting justice for years but there's no one to listen to their plight.

Ali also appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to take suo moto notice of the gross human rights violations of the poor and the marginalized minorities in the Sindh province at the hands of police and lower judiciary, who are influenced by the feudal and local elite. (ANI)

At least there are NGOs in Pakistan trying to help with the plight of minority families in Pakistan, but they too seem to be of little help, as much as they would like to be. The only thing that they and the rest of us can do, is to talk about the unjust way in which minorities are treated in certain countries. Perhaps, eventually, the authorities will be shamed into action.