A few days ago we had reported that, the Sikh community living in Pakistan’s Hangu district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had complained that, it was being forced to convert to Islam.
While lodging a complaint against these forced conversions with the Deputy Commissioner Hangu Shahid Mehmood, the Sikhs pointed the finger at Assistant Commissioner Tehsil Tall Yaqoob Khan and even claimed that residents of Doaba area were being tortured regularly.
Now it seems that this plight of the Sikhs has been noticed by the highest echelons of Indian power corridors.
As reported, Captain Amarinder Singh, the current Chief Minister of Punjab tweeted to Sushama Swaraj on Tuesday morning, asking her to take up this issue with Pakistan. He asserted that the Sikh community cannot be victimised in such a manner, and all should help in protecting the Sikh identity:
Request @SushmaSwaraj ji to take up this issue with Pakistan. We cannot allow the Sikh community to be victimised in such a manner. It’s our duty to help protect the Sikh identity and the @MEAIndia should pursue the matter at the highest levels.https://t.co/sRFjV1pk5Q
— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) December 19, 2017
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj took note of this incident, and tweeted out in the afternoon that, India will take up this issue with Pakistan on the highest level:
We will take this up at the highest level with Government of Pakistan. @IndiainPakistan
Sikh community in Hangu ‘being forced to convert’ https://t.co/HiWuVmBzbj— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) December 19, 2017
It remains to be seen whether India’s intervention, if and when it comes, would spur the Pakistanis to take actions against the accused government employee in this case. It also needs to be seen whether India would also raise the issue of Hindu forced conversions, which by all accounts are rampant to say the least.
As a result of such conversion tactics, the population of the Hindus has shrunk from 23% in 1947 to just 6% in recent times. It has been reported that the Hindu girls are abducted, converted and forced to marry Muslims in the Islamic nation. Such a menace has been mostly targeted towards Hindus belonging to so called lower castes while the upper caste Hindus are mainly kidnapped for a ransom.
