Islamabad [Pakistan]: The Pakistan police has arrested a suspect connected with the shooting of an 18-year-old Hindu girl, who was shot dead on Monday in Sindh province.
The assailant and two of his accomplices broke into the Hindu girl’s house and opened fire on her after she refused to marry him, the Dawn newspaper reported citing the police.
The girl identified as Pooja Kumari was shot in Rohi, Sukkur after she put up resistance to the attackers.
This is not a stand-alone incident in Pakistan. Human rights activists say that hundreds of Christian and Hindu girls are forced to convert to Islam every year.
Women belonging to minority communities are regularly abducted and forcibly converted. Rights group says the country’s minority communities have long faced the issue of forced marriages and conversions.
Multiple rights organisations have accused the Pakistan government of not taking necessary actions over the rising crimes against Hindus and other minorities.
Earlier, the provincial government in Sindh had attempted to outlaw forced conversions and marriages. However, religious protestors contested the bill, stating that girls only convert after falling in love with Muslim men.
The overall population of the Hindu community in Pakistan at 1.60 per cent, and 6.51 per cent in Sindh, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
