September 14, 2005. Four Muslim men force their way into a Hindu house in Sindh, grab the young daughter of the family, carry her away, forcibly convert her to Islam and compel her to marry one of them. Two of the kidnappers are arrested, the case comes up in a local Pakistani court but the judge dismisses the charges of kidnapping and forcible conversion after the terrorised girl is forced to give a statement that she "wilfully married and converted".
Another young Hindu woman, Sapna Giyanchand, is forcibly taken to a shrine in Shikarpur district of Sindh by Shamsuddin Dasti, a Muslim married man and father. The custodian of the shrine, Maulvi Abdul Aziz, converts Sapna to Islam, changes her name to Mehek, and marries her to Dasti. When Sapna's case is presented in court, Muslim extremists mob her and chant slogans. A terrified Sapna is unable to speak to her parents, who are also present in court. Maulvi Aziz, responding to the demand that Sapna be returned to her parents, scoffs at the suggestion: "How can a Muslim girl live and maintain contact with kafirs?"
These and many other such instances of how Hindus who constitute a minuscule minority community in Pakistan are harassed, humiliated and denied basic human rights have been meticulously detailed in Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora - A Survey of Human Rights 2005, released last week in Washington, DC and The Hague by Hindu American Foundation, a non-profit, non-discriminatory, and non-partisan organisation
