Hundreds of low-caste Hindus or Dalits have reached Islamabad to hold protest demonstrations against the Indian government on the deaths of 11 people of a scheduled caste Bheel family in last August. On Wednesday (September 24), hundreds of participants tried to enter the Diplomatic enclave where mostly foreign missions are located to register a protest outside Indian High Commission, however, they were not allowed to enter due to security reasons.
They were later allowed to hold a sit-in in front of the Indian High Commission on Thursday. The sit-in is joined by Hindus and Sikhs from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Many Hindu leaders from Sindh attended the protest camp outside the Indian High Commission.
Chief Patron of Pakistan Hindu Council is talking to the media at the rally
According to a report by BBC at least 11 persons of a single peasant, family were found dead in an agriculture field in the Indian state of Rajasthan’s Jodhpur district on 9th August. The Bheel family actually belonged to the Sanghar district in Sindh and had migrated to India from Pakistan in 2015 and only one member of the family now remained alive after the gory incident.
Local police in India have found pesticides near the bodies and it was presumed that they might have been poisoned due to personal enmity. Pakistan government has sought details of the case, but so far not shared by the Indian government.
This peasant family had migrated to India due to economic and religious reasons. Most of the Bheel family members were doing peasantry at agriculture fields in the Sanghar district, but due to a shortage of irrigation water and lack of employment opportunities, they were left unemployed for quite some time.
A female relative of the deceased Shrimati Mukhi, wife of Bhontrio Bheel in a press conference at Hyderabad (Sindh) Press Club told the media-men that she believed that the Indian agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had killed her family through the goons of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) after it failed to convince him to act as a spy against Pakistan (Dawn, dated September 7, 2020).
In Sindh peasants are mostly working as share-cropper under the Sindh Tenancy Act 1950 but there is no implementation of this law so their labour is exploited by influential landlords. The landlords often offer peasantry at lower rates (20 to 25 percent crop sharing basis instead of 50 percent under the law). The Tenancy Tribunals to settle the disputes under the Sindh Tenancy Act 1950 are non-functional in the province and there is no effective mechanism to fix their wages or to provide relief to them in case of a dispute. In some areas, the landlords employ peasants on daily wage basis at lower wages. Minimum wages are not paid to agriculture workers.
The unfortunate Bheel family had left their village Tajan Dahri, about 30 kilometers from Shahdadpur town in Sanghar district for India as a relative told BBC reporter in Hyderabad that in-laws of head of the family Tajan Bheel were living near Jodhpur India and they had asked to come there because of better employment opportunities in agriculture sectors in India.
Thousands of Hindu families have migrated to India in recent years due to various reasons including discriminatory attitudes toward religion basis to them in Pakistani society. In many cases, Hindu girls are abducted and when cases are registered with Police the girls often surface in the media declaring that she has got married and embraced Islam.
Two centres of (forced) conversion to Islam are notorious in Sindh which is located at Bharchoondi (led by Mian Mitho) in Ghokti district in upper Sindh and Samaro in Umerkot district (led by Pir Ayub Jan Sirhandi) in lower Sindh.
Earlier, only upper-caste Hindus used to migrate to India due to religious reasons, but now low-caste Hindus or Dalits (scheduled caste) have also started migrating to India as they feel insecure in Pakistan where an overwhelming majority are Muslims. Most Dalits prefer to settle in border Indian states like Rajasthan and Gujarat as their relatives are already settled there since partition.
The Indian government is not treating well to Pakistani Hindu migrants as many families have come back after migrating to India and complained about the bad attitude to of the Indian government.
Most Pakistani Hindus have to stay in asylum or as immigrants for decades without any right to do a job. They have to work at lower rates. There is a very harsh policy of the Indian government to provide citizenship to Pakistani Hindus.
The current protest in the capital Islamabad is arranged by Pakistan Hindu Council led by Patron-In-Chief Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani. Pakistan Hindu Council is a social welfare organisation of upper-caste Hindus/ The lower-caste Hindus have been complaining that the Council does not allow membership of scheduled caste Hindus due to the former’s monopoly.
In an earlier TV interview, Mr. Vankwani had severely criticized the Hindu families who are migrating to India (inducing the Bheel family). However, due to unknown reasons, Mr Vankwani has arranged these events at the capital.
Interestingly, over 100 buses full of scheduled caste Hindus arrived in Islamabad the other day as most of the participants were brought to capital for an “All Pakistan Tour” between September 22 and 27. There was no mention of participation in this rally in the invitation.
Although it is an encouraging sign that the ruling party Pakistan Tahrik Insaaf (PTI) has raised an issue of low-cast Hindu Dalits in Pakistan, otherwise, the representatives of the Pakistan Hindu Council are raising issues of only the upper caste.
A representative of lower caste Hindus complained that participants are not treated well in Islamabad as there was no proper arrangement for their stay or food in the Capital.
The main demands of the Pakistan Hindu Council are to give counselor access to Pakistan High Commission to the remaining members of the family and the Jodhpur police should share the FIR and Police report with Pakistani authorities.
