Under the unrelenting persecution and hate it is no surprise that Pakistan’s Hindu and Sikh
minorities are fast disappearing with India being the favoured destination for the refugees with large
refugee camps in places such as Jodhpur. Other have stayed on illegally in the Amritsar, Jalandhar
and Rajpura districts of Punjab, too afraid to go back to Pakistan. There are approximately 1,000
Pakistani Hindus arriving annually in the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan, with an estimated
400 Pakistani Hindu settlements scattered throughout Jodhpur and other cities in the state,
including Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Barmer, and Ganganagar. Many Pakistani refugees have settled in other
parts of India. On 3 February 2013, during a press conference at the Lahore Press Club, the Adviser
to Prime Minister on Minorities Affairs Dr Paul Bhatti , acknowledged reports that dozens of Hindu
families have migrated to India, although he attempted to minimise the dire situation which had led
to their exodus. Yet interviews with the asylum seekers suggest the Hindu minorities in Sindh have
been living under the shadow of segregation and persecution on religious grounds. People said the
harassment was manifested in Hindu children being discriminated against in government schools,
Hindu residents not being allowed to buy property and bullied into leaving their establishments
among others.
On 13 May 2013, Irfan Haider writing in Dawn, reported that Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani of Nawaz
Sharif’s Muslim League, revealed in the National Assembly on Monday that around 5,000 Hindus are
migrating from Pakistan to India every year. On 5 September 2001 the Times of India reported that
there were 17,000 Hindus from Pakistan who had yet to get Indian citizenship, out of whom 5,000
live in Jodhpur alone. Many of those who arrived in India as refugees in 1965 had also not received
citizenship.
For the entire article click here- Pakistan-Hindu-brief
Content Courtesy- Ranbir Singh, Chair of Hindu Human Rights Group (HHR)
