An 18-year-old Hindu girl was shot and killed in Pakistan’s Sindh province after she resisted an attempted abduction on 21 March.
Pooja Kumari was reportedly killed by a man identified as Wahid Bux Lashari after he and two others broke into her home near the Chhuahra Mandi area of Sukkur in Sindh. Mr Lashari, a Muslim, is said to have asked Ms Kumari to marry him, but she refused. He and his accomplices initially attempted to abduct her before shooting her.
Mr Lashari was arrested on 22 March and was subsequently remanded into police custody for ten days. Some outlets have reported that Mr Lashari has since confessed to the murder.
The murder has been condemned extensively on social media, including by Shehbaz Sharif, the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Pakistan, who tweeted: “The brutal murder of Hindu girl, Pooja Kumari, is most heinous & condemnable. Such heart-rending incidents represent our collective failure & put our whole society to shame. No girl deserves to go through this. High time we thought why we continue to hit lows one after the other.”
Cases of abduction, forced marriage and forced conversion of Christian and Hindu girls have increased in Pakistan in recent years, particularly in Punjab and Sindh provinces. Girls from ‘low’ caste Hindu communities are particularly at risk, and many of those kidnapped are forcibly converted to Islam and married off to their abductors.
Perpetrators are emboldened by a culture of impunity, and victims and their families are often intimidated by abductors and their relatives. As a result, crimes are often unreported and figures underestimated.
CSW’s Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: “CSW extends our deepest condolences to the family and loved ones of Pooja Kumari, whose life has been tragically cut short by this heinous act. We call for justice in her case, and remind the government of Pakistan of its obligations to protect all citizens regardless of their religion or belief. The scourge of abduction, forced conversion and forced marriage of religious minority girls remains widespread in the country and must be addressed as a matter of urgency. The perpetrators must be held to account so that a culture of impunity around these crimes is no longer permitted to permeate Pakistani society.”
