Daily Times

KARACHI: The Deputy Commissioners of all the districts of Sindh have been instructed to gather facts, figures, and reasons behind mass-migration of Hindus to India.

According to sources, the Minority Affairs Department of the Sindh government has forwarded a letter to all the DCs particularly of Ghotki, Jacobabad, Larkana, Sukkur, Kashmore-Kandhkot and Shikarpur to gather details of the Hindus who have migrated to India on the account of injustice, lawlessness, kidnapping of Hindu girls, and forced conversion etc.

The move is said to have been initiated after MQM’s MPA from Thatta Heer Ismail Soho sought details of all the Hindus who have migrated to India following alleged atrocities to the minority community. “The details of migration of Hindus from 2008 to 2014 have been sought,” said a source.

It should be noted that thousands of Hindu families have migrated to India due to forced conversion to Islam and forced marriages of their girls to Muslims. Interestingly, the then PPP-led Sindh government denied any kind of migration of the minorities when the national and international media highlighted such issues.

Former Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah had constituted a three-member committee comprising minority ministers to look into the matter. Sindh Minister for Excise and taxation Mukesh Kumar Chawla, who was heading the said committee, had denied reports that Hindu families were migrating to India.

Chawla had reportedly said “I want to clarify this that around 200-250 of the people leaving are going for a pilgrimage. They will come back after their 30-40 day stay.” He admitted that there used to be poor law and order situation in Sindh but the government had done everything to get rid of the problems.

When asked about families who went to India on visit visas but applied for residence in India and stayed over there, Chawla said people did it for business purposes “but 99% of them would come back”.

A representative of Hindu community in Jacobabad had also expressed concern over the migration and appealed to the Hindu families to take back their decision and stay in Sindh which is their “motherland”.