Indian activist urges UN chief to intervene to ensure safety of Sikhs, Hindus in Pakistan
New Delhi, Feb 16 (Agency) A day after a Sikh minority community member was brutally attacked in Peshawar in Pakistan, activist Puneet Singh Chandhok, president of the Indian World Forum, has written to the UN chief urging that a probe be launched into the “ongoing atrocities on minorities” in Pakistan. Chandhok in his letter on Wednesday also urged UN Chief Antonio Guterres that Pakistan should be directed to ensure the safety and well-being of its Sikh and Hindu minority. Citing several instances of attacks on Sikhs, Chandhok said the Pakistan government “has failed to take any preventive measure or responsive action” to protect minority Sikhs and Hindus in Pakistan, and “on the contrary the administration of Pakistan is instrumental in protecting and shielding all those accused involved in heinous crimes against minorities living there”.
Chandhok said the atrocities against minorities in Pakistan, ranging from abduction, extortion, state sponsored killings of minorities to forceful conversion into Islam of young Hindu and Sikh girls “is a matter of great concern”. He cited the decrease in demographics of minorities in Pakistan as a portrayal of the lack of compliance of Pakistan to the UN Charter. “Many young girls residing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh province having been missing or abducted and are subjected to to sexual exploitation and abuse.” He said that despite the several appeals and complaints by the parents and guardians of the young girls to the local authorities, the “Government of Pakistan has failed to take any preventive measure or responsive action, and on the contrary the administration of Pakistan is instrumental in protecting and shielding all those accused involved in heinous crimes against minorities living there”. Chandhok said that the Imran Khan government “has been successful in misleading the International community but however due to emergence of strong social media the facts and ground reality can’t be ignored or hidden”.
He said that despite appeals, including by international organizations, demanding that the Pakistan government hand over the Hindu Temples and Gurdwaras and estate to the exclusive control and administration of the minorities living there, the administration has failed to do so and protect the sanctity of the minority shrines of worship. He cited the 2020 incident when a “state-sponsored mob” pelted stones and attacked the Gurdwara Janam Asthan, the birth place of Guru Nanak Dev, in Nankana Sahib, and “widely threatened the religious minorities of Hindu and Sikhs living in the area with dire consequences and propagated wiping out of minorities all across Pakistan”.
He alleged that the Government of Pakistan “through its various agencies including its Inter State Intelligence (ISI) and other organisations, has repeatedly supported and funded the activities including militant insurgency and unlawful activities to sabotage peace and communal harmony in India, including supporting the Kashmir and Khalistan movement. It is an open fact that Kashmiri, Khalistani Terrorists and underworld syndicate including Dawood Ibrahim have been provided safe haven there and operate from the Islamic nation. This is matter of great concern for the International community considering the heinous activities taking place there.”