[Reader-list] ‘Organised conspiracy’ against Hindus in Sindh: Mirza

[Kshmendra Kaul]

(News item (truncated) is reproduced below
 
""‘Organised conspiracy’ against Hindus in Sindh: Mirza"""
 




Friday, March 13, 2009
By By our correspondent 



Karachi

Legislators during the Sindh Assembly session on Thursday expressed concern over a whole range of issues, including kidnapping of minority members, corruption at the Civic Centre during registration of vehicles, continued load-shedding, non-payment of salaries to lady health workers (LHW), extra fees by private schools, theft of steel from railway tracks and cutting of trees.

“Certain elements have hatched an ‘organised conspiracy’ against the Hindus in interior Sindh to force them to flee and occupy their property and business,” Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza said. Responding to point of order by Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) legislator Razaq Rahimoon about the alleged blasphemy act in Umerkot and subsequent violent protests there, Mirza said that such incidents have been reported in the last two to three months. 

He said that previously Ahmadis were targeted and now Hindus were being targeted. “It was a well-thought conspiracy against Hindus to occupy their property and compel them to flee,” he said, adding that they would not allow it and protect the minorities. Mirza said that concerns in this regard were justified, and the DPO concerned had held talks with both sides and the police had taken “strict action” to restore peace in the area.

Rahimoon said that Umerkot was closed in last two days over alleged blasphemy. Hindus comprise 60 per cent of the population in the area and they were concerned about it. A minority MPA said that the minority members were not involved in it.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MPA Rai Naz Bozdar said that three Hindu traders were kidnapped from Salihpat, Pano Aqil, and one of them had been killed. Another treasury legislator Aisha Khoso said that the PPP Jacobabad district minority president had been kidnapped, and his whereabouts were not known for last 21 days. Similarly, PPP MPA Amir Ali Shah highlighted the alleged assault on a seven-year-old girl from the minority community in his constituency, Matiari.


http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=166859