Parents of missing Hindu girl protest for her recovery in Pakistan

Karachi, Jul 20 (PTI) Parents of a Hindu girl who went missing in Pakistan's Sindh province in 2021 have staged a protest in Karachi city, seeking her recovery after her 'mysterious' disappearance.
     Priya Kumari was seven years old when she disappeared mysteriously on August 19, 2021, while serving sherbet to a Muharram Ashura procession near her house in Sangrar, a small town near Sukkur in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.
     Her grief-stricken and tired parents, Raj Kumar Pal and his wife Veena Kumari, staged a protest on Friday at the famous Teen Talwar landmark in Karachi’s Clifton area to remind people that their daughter had still not been recovered.
     “They have again promised us that they are searching for our daughter, and she will be recovered soon,” Raj said.
     The parents called off their protest after Sindh home minister, Zia Langrove, and Inspector General of Police, Javed Odho, came to meet them and assured them that a full-fledged Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was working on the case.
     Odho said that even after the formation of the JIT, no witness remembers what happened to the little girl.
     “But the JIT is working day and night to solve this case, and we will have an answer soon,” he said.
     Even after three years of Priya's disappearance, there is no clue of her whereabouts. No witness remembers seeing her disappear despite a sizable crowd around during the 2021 Ashura procession.
     Sindh has a substantial Hindu community, and according to Raj, after Priya’s disappearance, there is more concern and fear among the people for the safety of their daughters and sisters.
     The disappearance and abduction of minor, teenaged or even married Hindu women are not uncommon in many parts of the province, but in most cases, the victims and those involved in abducting them show up sooner or later and go to the courts.
     According to Hindu community leaders, in the majority of these cases, the women and girls are forcibly converted and married off to older men, and the police generally tend to support the abductors instead of the victim's families.
     The population of Hindus in Pakistan increased from 3.5 million in 2017 to 3.8 million in 2023 to make it the largest minority community in the Islamic nation, according to the official data of last year's census.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)